The utility of episodic story memory performance for differentiating older
Alzheimer dementia and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
 
   Lead Investigator:    Anthony Stabler
   Institution      :    Roosevelt University
   E-Mail           :    stablertony@gmail.com
   Proposal ID      :    509



   Proposal Description:
   Episodic memory performance is commonly used as a marker for differentiating Alzheimer's dementia from behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in clinical populations.  However, a growing body of research suggests that some cases of behavioral variant FTD present with early episodic memory impairment similar to that of AD, making it difficult to differentiate the two.  Thus, the goal of this study is to examine the extent to which episodic memory performance (i.e., Logical Memory Immediate and Delay) differs across the AD and bvFTD spectrum, including full diagnoses and MCI-related diagnoses.  We hypothesize that AD and FTD groups will demonstrate both differences and similarities in terms of episodic memory performance.  This has implications for the field of practice in that, with certain presentations of AD and FTD, use of episodic memory performance in differentiating the two will be of less utility and accuracy.    To test the hypothesis, we plan to compare the following three diagnostic groups: Probable AD, Possible AD, and bvFTD.  Each group will be further stratified into full diagnosis, MCI amnestic, and MCI non-amnestic groupings, leading to a total of 9 comparison groups.  We then plan to perform descriptive and frequency statistics to assess for between group differences in sociodemographic variables.  Finally, we plan to perform and ANOVA comparing all 9 groups to one another in terms of Logical Memory immediate and delayed.  We then plan to make interpretations of our analyses based upon the findings, and link our interpretations to findings from previous literature that have challenged the notion of episodic memory performance as a sound marker for differentiating AD and bvFTD.