Does cognitive decline influence signing?

The study explored the change in handwritten signature in neurodegenerative diseases by using of a rater-based approach.

Four independent observers were required to compare a pair of signatures (on average, 5 years elapsed between the two signatures) made by 103 patients (mean age 72 years) with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and by 31 healthy participants (HC; mean age 73 years), judging their change according to a 0-1 rating scale (0 = similar or 1 = different). If a signature change was detected, the rater had also to report which signature features (spatial layout, omitted/added/switched letters or names, shape of letter, pen-flow) changed on the same 0-1 scale. For the AD and FTD groups, one signature was collected prior to the diagnosis of dementia, the other subsequent.

A signature change was reported by raters in 36% of AD patients, 44% of FTD, and 17% of HC, with significant differences between both clinical groups and HC (vs. AD, p = .01; vs. FTD, p = .001). There was not a distinctive marker of the signature change (i.e., feature change) in patients with dementia. Moreover, the signature changes in neurological patients were unrelated to their clinical and demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, time elapsed between the two signatures, Mini-mental State Examination score).

The findings suggest a resistance of handwritten signature in neurodegenerative diseases and in physiological aging, also suggesting that the signature may be an unreliable indicator of the cognitive status in AD and FTD, at least if subjectively evaluated.