%0 Journal Article %J J Alzheimers Dis %D 2018 %T Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia Performance on a Range of Saccadic Tasks. %A Douglass, Amanda %A Walterfang, Mark %A Velakoulis, Dennis %A Abel, Larry %X

BACKGROUND: Saccadic paradigms display changes across a number of degenerative conditions reflecting changes in the oculomotor pathway which in some conditions have been linked to disease presentation.

OBJECTIVE: To examine a novel range of saccadic paradigms in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

METHODS: Prosaccade, predictive, self-paced, memory-guided, and anti-saccade tasks were examined in bvFTD patients and controls.

RESULTS: A significant increase in latency for the bvFTD group was seen in all tasks. Self-paced saccades are reduced in number, memory-guided saccades display an increase in errors. Predictive saccades show an increased latency that does not remain when prosaccade latency changes are accounted for. While changes were seen across a range of paradigms, no individual task completely separated bvFTD from control participants.

CONCLUSION: bvFTD patients as a group display a number of changes on saccadic testing which may reflect the frontal lobe changes seen in this condition.

%B J Alzheimers Dis %V 65 %P 231-242 %8 2018 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30040708?dopt=Abstract %R 10.3233/JAD-170797