Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 19, 2026

The 4 Mountains Test: A Short Test of Spatial Memory with High Sensitivity for the Diagnosis of Pre-dementia Alzheimer's Disease
Published on: October 13, 2016
Differentiating Alzheimer's disease from subcortical vascular dementia with the FAB test
Hiroaki Oguro1, Shuhei Yamaguchi, Satoshi Abe
1Dept of Neurology, Hematology & Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Shimane University, Izumo, Japan. oguro@med.shimane-u.ac.jp
Background:
The frontal assessment battery (FAB) test is a composite tool for assessing executive functions related to the frontal lobe. Neuropsychological and blood-flow studies indicate distinct patterns of deterioration of anterior and posterior cortical function in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical vascular dementia (VD) patients. We predict that the FAB score may be useful for discriminating VD from AD.
Objective:
To evaluate the clinical usefulness of the FAB test for differential diagnosis of AD and VD.
Methods:
We compared FAB scores in 25 patients with AD, 27 patients with VD, and 80 age-matched normal control subjects. The AD group was matched for age, education and MMSE score with the VD group. The subtest scores in FAB were also compared among the three groups.
Results:
The FAB scores were significantly decreased in both the AD and VD groups compared to the control group, and the reduction were greater in the VD group. Among the FAB subtests, mental flexibility (phonological verbal fluency) was the only subtest that significantly discriminated VD from the other two groups.
Conclusions:
The FAB test can provide useful information for differentiating AD and VD at the bedside.
Related Concept Videos
Dementia l: Introduction
Alzheimer's Disease: Overview
The clinical diagnosis of AD hinges on the presence of memory and other cognitive impairments. Biomarkers, such as changes in Aβ and tau...
Dementia
The progression of dementia is generally gradual.
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Alzheimer Disease ll: Pathophysiology

