Applause sign in Alzheimer's disease: relationships to cognitive profile and severity of illness.

The present study aims to investigate the potential clinical utility of applause sign in Alzheimer's disease (AD), exploring whether it is consequent to the severity of cognitive impairment or to specific neuropsychological profiles. According to the current debate, the role of apraxia is also investigated. A total of 105 patients with AD were enrolled and classified on the basis of the severity of the disease: 37 had mild AD, 38 moderate AD, and 30 severe AD.

Insights into spared memory capacity in amnestic MCI and Alzheimer's Disease via minimal interference.

Impairment on standard tests of delayed recall is often already maximal in the aMCI stage of Alzheimer's Disease. Neuropathological work shows that the neural substrates of memory function continue to deteriorate throughout the progression of the disease, hinting that further changes in memory performance could be tracked by a more sensitive test of delayed recall. Recent work shows that retention in aMCI patients can be raised well above floor when the delay period is devoid of further material - 'Minimal Interference'.

Non-verbal memory measured by Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure B: normative data.

One of the major problems that clinical neuropsychology has had in memory clinics is to apply ecological, easily administrable and sensitive tests that can make the diagnosis of dementia both precocious and reliable. Often the choice of the best neuropsychological test is hard because of a number of variables that can influence a subject's performance. In this regard, tests originally devised to investigate cognitive functions in healthy adults are not often appropriate to analyze cognitive performance in old subjects with low education because of their intrinsically complex nature.

Dissociation apraxia secondary to right premotor stroke.

Apraxia is usually associated with damage to the dominant parietal cortex, but several other areas, including the left dorsolateral frontal cortex and subcortical structures, have also been implicated, suggesting that the praxis system is mediated by an anatomically distributed network. The right premotor frontal cortex is commonly assumed to play a secondary role in this system. We describe a patient who developed left upper limb apraxia after a right premotor ischaemic stroke.