Cognitive and emotional theory of mind in dementia. Impact on real life behaviors

Background Theory of mind (ToM) is a core cognitive process that allows regular socioemotional interaction in everyday life. ToM deficits may explain some essential behavior alterations dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). This study aimed to (1) identify differences across syndromes (2) determine if scores predict neuropsychiatric function. Method We evaluated 304 participants (age 64.07±9.2) divided into six groups (healthy control, NC = 41; AD 34; behavioral variant FTD 96; semantic aphasia; svPPA 38, nonfluent nfvPPA 47, progressive supranuclear palsy; PSP 48) using the UCSF Emotional Cognitive Test on TabCAT platform comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Pa Patients were early their (Clinical Dementia Rating: 0.80±0.53). compared between used regression models controlling by age sex predicted symptoms. Result was impaired AD, bvFTD, svPPA, (p<0.0001), all had emotional (p<0.0001). Both cToM eToM performance real-life syndrome, including anxiety, apathy, disinhibition, aberrant motor subscales Neuropsychiatric Inventory questionnaire, even after for influence bvFTD diagnosis. Conclusion are affected diverse syndromes, test can behavior. Assessment other aspects social cognition be beneficial identification cases.