[Clinical and neuropsychological characteristics of Huntington's disease: a review].

INTRODUCTION Huntington's disease is a dominant autosomic neurodegenerative disorder. This article's objective is to provide an up-to-date description of the clinical and neuropsychological manifestations over the course of the disease. METHOD According to clinical studies, the main characteristics of Huntington's disease include motor deficits, psychiatric problems and cognitive deficits. Many investigations have shown that a fronto-subcortical circuit dysfunction is responsible for these deficits. As the disease progresses, patients tend to have more cognitive difficulties which include attention/concentration problems, slowed cognitive processing, memory and language deficits, visuo-spatial problems and executive functioning difficulties. CONCLUSION Studies with asymptomatic carriers of Huntington's disease have shown that cognitive deterioration may begin long before a clinical diagnosis of the disease is possible.