Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Scientific investigations underscore the cognitive, psychological, and social benefits of cognitive stimulation for aged individuals, yet rigorous long-term studies remain limited.

Method: This abstract outlines the methods and initial participant characteristics of a controlled, randomized clinical trial on cognitive stimulation. A total of 578 aged individuals responded to the study call, with 362 meeting eligibility criteria.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: This study investigated the effects of cognitive stimulation on older adults over 18 months through a randomized clinical trial with 190 participants divided into Training Group (TG), Active Control Group (ACG), and Passive Control Group (PCG). Initial sociodemographic characterization (Table 1) ensured homogeneity among the groups. The clinical trial design aimed to assess the long-term impacts of multicompartment cognitive stimulation on the cognitive function of older adults in the TG.

Executive functions, mental health, and quality of life in healthy older adults.

Unlabelled: Population aging brings about numerous challenges, particularly concerning cognitive health. In this context, socioeconomic factors such as education have received special attention due to their role in brain health.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the performance of executive functions, mental health variables, and quality of life among healthy older adults in relation to their level of education.

Improved Accuracy of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised in the Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment, Mild Dementia Due to Alzheimer's Disease and Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Using Mokken Scale Analysis.

Background: The Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) is an accessible cognitive tool that supports the early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of the ACE-R in MCI, AD, and bvFTD through the identification of novel coefficients for differentiation between these diseases.

Methods: We assessed 387 individuals: 102 mild AD, 37 mild bvFTD, 87 with amnestic MCI patients, and 161 cognitively unimpaired controls.

The presence of depressive symptoms and cognitive performance among older individuals with and without self-reported chronic diseases.

Unlabelled: Dementias secondary to cardiovascular diseases are the second cause of neurogenerative diseases. These conditions can be prevented by controlling risk factors, and it is necessary to observe the relationship between chronic diseases.

Objective: to know the influence of chronic non-communicable diseases on cognition and depressive symptoms in the elderly, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Predicting Dementia Due to Alzheimer's Disease and Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Using Algorithms with the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised Subscores Combined with Sociodemographic Factors.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are important causes of dementia with challenging differential diagnoses in many cases. Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) is a cognitive battery that may be useful to differentiate the two disorders.

Objective: The objectibe of this study is to investigate the value of the ACE-R combined with sociodemographic factors in the differential diagnosis between AD and bvFTD.

Social distancing, emotional suffering, and cognitive performance in mature and older adults: a literature review.

Unlabelled: Variables related to social distancing can have negative effects on the emotional well-being and cognition of adults and the elderly.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the available studies that address the relationship between situations of social distancing, socioemotional aspects, and cognition in the lives of mature and older adults.

Methods: A literature review study was carried out between December 2021 and January 2022, involving the SciELO, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases, with studies published between February 2018 and December 2021.

Long-term studies in cognitive training for older adults: a systematic review.

Unlabelled: Studies show that aging is accompanied by losses in cognitive functions and that interventions can increase performance and/or support the maintenance of cognitive skills in the elderly.

Objective: The objective of this study was to carry out a systematic review of long-term studies involving cognitive training (CT) in older adults without dementia and/or with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: A systematic review of controlled studies was published in scientific journals from 2000 onward, with duration ≥6 months, CT intervention, cognitively normal (CN) or MCI participants aged ≥60 years, and assessments using cognitive and/or neuropsychological tests.

Cognitive interventions in mature and older adults, benefits for psychological well-being and quality of life: a systematic review study.

Unlabelled: Few recently published studies investigating the benefits of educational and cognitive interventions on quality of life (QoL), psychological well-being, and depressive symptoms are available.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of educational and cognitive interventions on psychological well-being, QoL, and mood in mature and older adults without dementia and/or with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: The systematic review took place from September to October 2020 and the following databases were used to select the studies: SciELO, LILACS, PubMed, and Medline.

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease: A 12-Month Follow-Up Study.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are highly prevalent and may complicate clinical managements. To test whether the Neuropsychiatry Inventory (NPI) could detect change in neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver's distress in patients diagnosed with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) from baseline to a 12-month follow-up and to investigate possible predictors of change in NPI scores. The sample consisted of 31 patients diagnosed with bvFTD and 28 patients with AD and their caregivers.

Brazilian Version of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised in the Differential Diagnosis of Alzheimer'S Disease and Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are frequent causes of dementia and, therefore, instruments for differential diagnosis between these two conditions are of great relevance.

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) for differentiating AD from bvFTD in a Brazilian sample.

Methods: The ACE-R was administered to 102 patients who had been diagnosed with mild dementia due to probable AD, 37 with mild bvFTD and 161 cognitively healthy controls, matched according to age and education.

Cognitive training using the abacus: a literature review study on the benefits for different age groups.

Unlabelled: The literature indicates that cognitive stimulation interventions have shown promising results. Abacus represents a tool with great potential in such interventions.

Objectives: To carry out a systematic review of studies published in recent years that entailed the delivery of a cognitive training program using an abacus to boost target cognitive abilities of older persons and also other age groups, with or without cognitive impairment.

Extramural gerontology management devising an integrating record for a geriatric care service, an experience report.

Unlabelled: The Gerontological Care Plan is idealized through case management that includes in its aspect engaging the elderly, self-care and the acquisition and maintenance of health-promoting behaviors.

Objective: To evaluate the importance of a gerontological care plan, in a geriatric service of a referral hospital in the city of São Paulo.

Methods: Fifteen older adult patients were interviewed and the Gerontological Care Plan (PAGe) was applied.

Disease Progression in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer Disease: The Contribution of Staging Scales.

Introduction: There is a shortage of validated instruments to estimate disease progression in frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Objectives: To evaluate the ability of the FTD Rating Scale (FTD-FRS) to detect functional and behavioral changes in patients diagnosed with the behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD), primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and Alzheimer disease (AD) after 12 months of the initial evaluation, compared to the Clinical Dementia Rating scale-frontotemporal lobar degeneration (CDR-FTLD) and the original Clinical Dementia Rating scale (CDR).

Methods: The sample consisted of 70 individuals, aged 40+ years, with at least 2 years of schooling, 31 with the diagnosis of bvFTD, 12 with PPA (8 with semantic variant and 4 with non-fluent variant), and 27 with AD.

Depressive symptoms and chronotypes of elderly nursing home residentes: A case management study.

Unlabelled: Institutionalization potentiates the tendency for specific sleep disturbances which occur with aging, besides negative health consequences such as increased rate of depressive symptoms.

Objective: To compare sleep profile and depressive symptoms in elderly nursing home residents, highlighting gender differences.

Methods: A quantitative descriptive study of 29 elderly from two different nursing homes was conducted.

Profiles of cognitive impairment in the continuum from normal cognition to Alzheimer's clinical syndrome: Contributions of the short-term memory binding tests.

Background: Short-term memory binding (STMB) tests assess conjunctive binding, in which participants should remember the integration of features, such as shapes (or objects) and colors, forming a unique representation in memory. In this study, we investigated two STMB paradigms: change detection (CD) and free recall (FR).

Objective: To investigate the cognitive profile in the CD and FR tasks of three diagnostic groups: cognitively unimpaired (CU), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's clinical syndrome (ACS).

Actively station: Effects on global cognition of mature adults and healthy elderly program using eletronic games.

Unlabelled: Studies show that aging is accompanied by decline in cognitive functions but also indicate that interventions, such as training on electronic games, can enhance performance and promote maintenance of cognitive abilities in healthy older adults.

Objective: To investigate the effects of an electronic game program, called Actively Station, on the performance of global cognition of adults aged over 50 years.

Methods: 124 mature and elderly adults enrolled in the "Actively Station" cognitive stimulation program of São Caetano do Sul City, in the State of São Paulo, participated in training for learning of electronic games.

Normative data for the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery stratified by age and education.

Introduction: Diagnosing neurocognitive disorders is challenging in low-educated individuals.

Objective: To report normative data for the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (BCSB) and to assess the association of age and education with performance on the BCSB in 240 community-dwelling elderly from Ermelino Matarazzo, São Paulo city.

Methods: The inclusion criteria were scoring above the education-adjusted cut-off points on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and below six points on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).

Recalling feature bindings differentiates Alzheimer's disease from frontotemporal dementia.

It has been challenging to identify clinical cognitive markers that can differentiate patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from those with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The short-term memory binding (STMB) test assesses the ability to integrate colors and shapes into unified representations and to hold them temporarily during online performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether free recall deficits during short-term memory binding (STMB) test can differentiate patients with AD from those with bvFTD and controls.

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, Caregiver Burden and Distress in Behavioral-Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

Background/aims: We aimed to compare caregiver burden and distress in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to investigate which factors contribute to caregivers' burden and distress.

Methods: Fifty patients and their caregivers were invited to participate. Among the patients, 20 had a diagnosis of bvFTD and 30 had AD.

Relationships between episodic memory performance prediction and sociodemographic variables among healthy older adults.

Unlabelled: Previous studies have suggested that performance prediction, an aspect of metamemory, may be associated with objective performance on memory tasks.

Objective: The objective of the study was to describe memory prediction before performing an episodic memory task, in community-dwelling older adults, stratified by sex, age group and educational level. Additionally, the association between predicted and objective performance on a memory task was investigated.

Direct and indirect assessments of activities of daily living in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer disease.

Background: There is limited information about the functional profile of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Objective: To compare direct and indirect assessments of activities of daily living (ADLs) in bvFTD and Alzheimer disease (AD) and their relationship with cognitive performance.

Methods: In all, 20 patients with bvFTD, 30 patients with AD, and 34 normal controls (NCs), matched for age, education, and severity of dementia, completed the Direct Assessment of Functional Performance (DAFS-BR) and usual cognitive measures.

Functional status in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: a systematic review.

The aim was to conduct a systematic review of studies that described the functional profile of patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), published between 2000 and 2013. The bibliographic search was conducted using the terms "frontotemporal dementia" and "frontotemporal lobar degeneration" in combination with "independence," "functionality," "basic activities of daily living," "disability," and scales that measure functional performance: "Disability Assessment for Dementia-DAD," "Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ)," "Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS)." To be included in the review, the study had to mention the characterization of the functional status of patients with bvFTD in the objectives of the study, using a previously validated instrument of functional assessment.

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and applicability of the Brazilian version of the Frontotemporal Dementia Rating Scale (FTD-FRS).

Background: Staging scales for dementia have been devised for grading Alzheimer's disease (AD) but do not include the specific symptoms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Objective: To translate and adapt the Frontotemporal Dementia Rating Scale (FTD-FRS) to Brazilian Portuguese.

Methods: The cross-cultural adaptation process consisted of the following steps: translation, back-translation (prepared by independent translators), discussion with specialists, and development of a final version after minor adjustments.

Enhancement of carer skills and patient function in the non-pharmacological management of frontotemporal dementia (FTD): A call for randomised controlled studies.

FTD is a unique condition which manifests with a range of behavioural symptoms, marked dysfunction in activities of daily living (ADL) and increased levels of carer burden as compared to carers of other dementias. No efficacious pharmacological interventions to treat FTD currently exist, and research on pharmacological symptom management is variable. The few studies on non-pharmacological interventions in FTD focus on either the carer or the patients' symptoms, and lack methodological rigour.