Departamento de Neurologia Sur, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile
Geroscience Center for Brain Health and Metabolism GERO, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo ANID, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2020 Dec;91(12):1279-1282. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2020-324302. Epub 2020 Sep 22.
To compare social cognition performance between patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and those patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
We included 21 participants with ALS, 20 with bvFTD and 21 healthy controls who underwent a comprehensive cognitive battery, including the short version of the Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment (Mini-SEA), which comprises the test and Facial Emotion Recognition Test (FERT); Mini-Mental State Examination; Frontal Assessment Battery; lexical fluency (F-A-S), category fluency (animals/minute), digit span (direct and backwards) tests and the Hayling test. A post hoc analysis was conducted with the patients with ALS divided into two subgroups: patients without cognitive impairment (ALScn; n=13) and patients with cognitive impairment (ALSci; n=8).
No significant difference was noted between participant groups in terms of the age, sex and education. ALS-total group and patients with bvFTD had similar disease durations. Patients with ALSci performed poorly when compared with controls with regard to the FERT (p<0.001), the (p<0.004) and the Mini-SEA (p<0.002) total scores. Moreover, patients with bvFTD performed poorly in comparison with controls in executive and social cognition tests. The performance of patients with ALSci was similar to that of patients with bvFTD, while the performance of patients with ALScn was similar to that of controls.
Our findings support a cognitive continuum between ALS and bvFTD and shed light on the cognitive heterogeneity of ALS, expanding its possible neuropsychological profiles.
比较肌萎缩侧索硬化症（ALS）患者和行为变异额颞叶痴呆（bvFTD）患者的社会认知表现。
我们纳入了 21 名 ALS 患者、20 名 bvFTD 患者和 21 名健康对照者，他们接受了全面的认知测试，包括社会认知和情绪评估的简短版本（Mini-SEA），包括 测试和面部情绪识别测试（FERT）；简易精神状态检查；额叶评估测验；词汇流畅性（F-A-S）、类别流畅性（动物/分钟）、数字跨度（直接和倒序）测试和海灵测验。对 ALS 患者进行了事后分析，分为无认知障碍（ALScn；n=13）和认知障碍（ALSci；n=8）两组。
参与者在年龄、性别和教育程度方面无显著差异。ALS 总组和 bvFTD 患者的疾病持续时间相似。与对照组相比，ALSci 患者在 FERT（p<0.001）、 （p<0.004）和 Mini-SEA（p<0.002）总分方面表现较差。此外，与对照组相比，bvFTD 患者在执行功能和社会认知测试中表现较差。ALSci 患者的表现与 bvFTD 患者相似，而 ALScn 患者的表现与对照组相似。
我们的发现支持 ALS 和 bvFTD 之间的认知连续性，并揭示了 ALS 的认知异质性，扩展了其可能的神经心理学特征。
