Multidimensional assessment of time perception along the continuum of Alzheimer's Disease and evidence of alterations in subjective cognitive decline.

Timing alterations occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD), even in early stages (mild cognitive impairment, MCI). Moreover, a stage named subjective cognitive decline (SCD), in which individuals perceive a change in cognitive performance not revealed by neuropsychological tests, has been identified as a preclinical phase of AD. However, no study to date has investigated different dimensions of time processing along the continuum from physiological to pathological aging, and whether timing alterations occur in SCD.

Sundowning in Patients with Dementia: Identification, Prevalence, and Clinical Correlates.

Background: The term sundowning is used to describe the emergence or worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms in late afternoon or early evening in people with dementia.

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate sundowning's prevalence and clinical manifestations among patients attending a tertiary memory clinic and to investigate its clinical and neuropsychological correlates.

Methods: Patients with dementia attending our memory clinic were enrolled in the study.

Parkinsonism Is Associated with Altered SMA-Basal Ganglia Structural and Functional Connectivity in Frontotemporal Degeneration.

Background: Patients with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD) often manifest parkinsonism, which likely results from cortical and subcortical degeneration of brain structures involved in motor control. We used a multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approach to investigate possible structural and/or functional alterations in FTD patients with and without parkinsonism (Park+ and Park-).

Methods: Thirty FTD patients (12 Park+, 18 Park-) and 30 healthy controls were enrolled and underwent 3T MRI scanning.

Beta-Amyloid Peptide in Tears: An Early Diagnostic Marker of Alzheimer's Disease Correlated with Choroidal Thickness.

We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic role of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers in tears as well as their association with retinal and choroidal microstructures. In a cross-sectional study, 35 subjects (age 71.7 ± 6.

Blink Rate Study in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Background: Blink rate (BR) is considered a marker of dopaminergic activity in humans. BR is increased in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), but no study has yet investigated whether BR changes with the progression of cognitive decline from MCI to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and whether BR abnormalities are present in subjects with Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD).

Objective: The aim of our study was to assess BR in patients with AD, MCI, and SCD and to correlate BR with demographic and clinical features of cognitive decline.

Cortical complexity alterations in the medial temporal lobe are associated with Alzheimer's disease psychosis.

Psychosis is frequent in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and it is associated with a worse disease course. AD psychosis may represent a distinct AD phenotype, though its specific neurobiological underpinnings have yet to be identified. This study investigated neural underpinnings of AD psychosis using surface-based-morphometry.

Altered speech-related cortical network in frontotemporal dementia.

Background: In healthy subjects (HS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) demonstrated an increase in motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes during specific linguistic tasks. This finding indicates functional connections between speech-related cortical areas and the dominant primary motor cortex (M1).

Objective: To investigate M1 function with TMS and the speech-related cortical network with neuroimaging measures in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), including the non-fluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfv-PPA) and the behavioral variant of FTD (bv-FTD).

Bradykinesia in Alzheimer's disease and its neurophysiological substrates.

Objective: Alzheimer's disease is primarily characterized by cognitive decline; recent studies, however, emphasize the occurrence of motor impairment in this condition. Here, we investigate whether motor impairment, objectively evaluated with kinematic techniques, correlates with neurophysiological measures of the primary motor cortex in Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: Twenty patients and 20 healthy subjects were enrolled.

Psychosis of Alzheimer's disease: Neuropsychological and neuroimaging longitudinal study.

Objectives: Psychosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may represent a distinct disease phenotype; however, neuropsychological profile and neural basis linked to this phenotype have not yet been clarified. In this study, we aimed at detecting whether impairment in specific cognitive domains predicts the onset of psychosis in AD patients and what grey matter alterations, their location, and the rate of atrophy are associated with psychosis of AD.

Methods: Longitudinal neuropsychological data from AD patients with and without psychosis were analysed to determine whether the neuropsychological profile can predict the onset of psychosis.

Somatosensory Temporal Discrimination Threshold in Patients with Cognitive Disorders.

Background: The temporal processing of sensory information can be evaluated by testing the somatosensory temporal discrimination threshold (STDT), which is defined as the shortest interstimulus interval needed to recognize two sequential sensory stimuli as separate in time. The STDT requires the functional integrity of the basal ganglia and of the somatosensory cortex (S1). Although there is evidence that time processing is impaired in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), no study has yet investigated STDT in patients with various degree of cognitive impairment.

Is Losing One's Way a Sign of Cognitive Decay? Topographical Memory Deficit as an Early Marker of Pathological Aging.

Spatial navigation tasks reveal small differences between normal and pathological aging and may thus disclose potential neuropsychological predictors of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of our study was to investigate which navigational skills are compromised in the early phase of pathological aging as well as the extent to which they are compromised. We performed an extensive neuropsychological evaluation based on working memory and learning tasks (i.

Modulation of the Cannabinoid System: A New Perspective for the Treatment of the Alzheimer's Disease.

The pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is somewhat complex and has yet to be fully understood. As the effectiveness of the therapy currently available for AD has proved to be limited, the need for new drugs has become increasingly urgent. The modulation of the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECBS) is one of the potential therapeutic approaches that is attracting a growing amount of interest.

Parkinsonism is associated with altered primary motor cortex plasticity in frontotemporal dementia-primary progressive aphasia variant.

In frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the behavioral variant (bv-FTD) and nonfluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfv-PPA) reflect a prominent neurodegenerative involvement of the frontal lobe networks, which may include the premotor and motor areas and thus cause heterogeneous clinical symptoms including parkinsonism. With the technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation, we investigated long-term potentiation- and long-term depression-like plasticity in the primary motor cortex of bv-FTD and nfv-PPA patients, with and without parkinsonism, by using the theta-burst stimulation (TBS) protocol. We applied the intermittent TBS and continuous TBS in 20 FTD patients and 18 age-matched healthy subjects.

External Validity of Randomized Controlled Trials on Alzheimer's Disease: The Biases of Frailty and Biological Aging.

To date, the external validity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been assessed only considering monodimensional variables. Nevertheless, looking at isolated and single characteristics cannot guarantee a sufficient level of appreciation of the AD patients' complexity. The only way to understand whether the two worlds (i.

Cognitive Training in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease: Findings of a 12-month Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Cognitive training (CT) is a non-pharmacological intervention based on a set of tasks that reflect specific cognitive functions. CT is aimed at improving cognition in patients with cognitive impairment, though no definitive conclusions have yet been drawn on its efficacy in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a CT program designed to improve cognition in AD patients.

The Impact of Frailty on the Risk of Conversion from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's Disease: Evidences from a 5-Year Observational Study.

The frailty construct has increasingly been adopted in the field of cognitive disorders. The aim of the present study was to measure frailty in a cohort of individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to explore whether frailty measures may consent to predict the risk of conversion to dementia. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical charts of outpatients with amnesic MCI (aMCI) consecutively recruited at our Department, and followed-up for 5 years.

Sundowning in Dementia: Clinical Relevance, Pathophysiological Determinants, and Therapeutic Approaches.

Sundowning means the emergence or worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in the late afternoon or early evening. This syndrome has been recognized since a long time in the field of dementing illnesses and is well known among most of health-care providers involved in the assistance of people with dementia. Indeed, it represents a common manifestation among persons with dementia and is associated with several adverse outcomes (such as institutionalization, faster cognitive worsening, and greater caregiver burden).

Inappropriate Sexual Behaviors Among Community-Dwelling Patients with Dementia.

Objective: Inappropriate sexual behaviors (ISBs) represent challenging and stressful manifestations of dementia and are highly burdening for patients, families, and healthcare providers. Nevertheless, ISBs have so far attracted limited clinical and scientific interest compared with other neuropsychiatric symptoms occurring in dementing illnesses. The authors aimed to systematically investigate the prevalence and characteristics of ISBs in a population of patients with dementia attending a memory clinic.

Attenuation of Choroidal Thickness in Patients With Alzheimer Disease: Evidence From an Italian Prospective Study.

Introduction: To compare the 12-month choroidal thickness (CT) change between Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and normal subjects.

Methods: In this prospective, observational study, 39 patients with a diagnosis of mild to moderate AD and 39 age-matched control subjects were included. All the subjects underwent neuropsychological (Mini Mental State Examination, Alzheimer disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale, and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale) and ophthalmological evaluation, including spectral domain optical coherence tomography, at baseline and after 12 months.

Primary Progressive Orofacial Apraxia: A Ten-Year Long Follow-Up Case Report.

Orofacial apraxia (OA) as the main symptom in neurodegenerative disorders has not been yet reported. We present the case of a woman with a 22-month long history of isolated OA, studied with cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and repeated clinical, neuropsychological, and morpho-functional evaluations. Baseline morpho-functional neuroimages revealed a left frontal operculum hypoperfusion with a widespread fronto-temporal involvement at follow-up.