Clinical Manifestations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neurology
• Psychology

Background:

• Right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (rtvFTD) causes progressive atrophy in the right anterior temporal lobe (rATL), impairing social cognition and semantic-pragmatic understanding.
• Latin America needs validated neuropsychological tools for rtvFTD assessment, as current diagnostic methods lack consensus and vary widely.
• Challenges in rtvFTD diagnosis stem from terminology ambiguity and diverse assessment tools, necessitating standardized approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose novel neuropsychological tools for characterizing rtvFTD's cognitive and social deficits.
• To present a structured roadmap for differentiating rtvFTD from other dementia types.
• To facilitate the design of personalized therapeutic interventions for rtvFTD patients.

Main Methods:

• Studied two diagnosed rtvFTD cases at FLENI, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Administered locally adapted neuropsychological tests focusing on semantic-pragmatic language and social cognition.
• Correlated neuropsychological findings with MRI scans to validate the proposed diagnostic roadmap.

Main Results:

• Patients showed significant deficits in naming, semantic fluency, pragmatic language, and emotion recognition, with preserved executive functions and memory.
• Neuropsychological deficits correlated with rATL atrophy and hypometabolism, aligning with rtvFTD literature.
• A regionally adapted cognitive battery was developed to capture rtvFTD symptoms and guide differential diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• The proposed roadmap offers practical neuropsychological tests for rtvFTD assessment, especially in Spanish-speaking regions.
• Integrating semantic-pragmatic and social cognition assessments enables precise differentiation of rtvFTD from other FTD variants.
• This approach supports personalized therapeutic interventions, aiming to enhance patient quality of life and clinical practice.