%0 Journal Article %J J Alzheimers Dis %D 2017 %T Music Perception in Dementia. %A Golden, Hannah L %A Clark, Camilla N %A Nicholas, Jennifer M %A Cohen, Miriam H %A Slattery, Catherine F %A Paterson, Ross W %A Foulkes, Alexander J M %A Schott, Jonathan M %A Mummery, Catherine J %A Crutch, Sebastian J %A Warren, Jason D %X

Despite much recent interest in music and dementia, music perception has not been widely studied across dementia syndromes using an information processing approach. Here we addressed this issue in a cohort of 30 patients representing major dementia syndromes of typical Alzheimer's disease (AD, n = 16), logopenic aphasia (LPA, an Alzheimer variant syndrome; n = 5), and progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA; n = 9) in relation to 19 healthy age-matched individuals. We designed a novel neuropsychological battery to assess perception of musical patterns in the dimensions of pitch and temporal information (requiring detection of notes that deviated from the established pattern based on local or global sequence features) and musical scene analysis (requiring detection of a familiar tune within polyphonic harmony). Performance on these tests was referenced to generic auditory (timbral) deviance detection and recognition of familiar tunes and adjusted for general auditory working memory performance. Relative to healthy controls, patients with AD and LPA had group-level deficits of global pitch (melody contour) processing while patients with PNFA as a group had deficits of local (interval) as well as global pitch processing. There was substantial individual variation within syndromic groups. Taking working memory performance into account, no specific deficits of musical temporal processing, timbre processing, musical scene analysis, or tune recognition were identified. The findings suggest that particular aspects of music perception such as pitch pattern analysis may open a window on the processing of information streams in major dementia syndromes. The potential selectivity of musical deficits for particular dementia syndromes and particular dimensions of processing warrants further systematic investigation.

%B J Alzheimers Dis %V 55 %P 933-949 %8 2017 %G eng %N 3 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27802226?dopt=Abstract %R 10.3233/JAD-160359 %0 Journal Article %J J Alzheimers Dis %D 2016 %T Altered sense of humor in dementia. %A Clark, Camilla N %A Nicholas, Jennifer M %A Gordon, Elizabeth %A Golden, Hannah L %A Cohen, Miriam H %A Woodward, Felix J %A Macpherson, Kirsty %A Slattery, Catherine F %A Mummery, Catherine J %A Schott, Jonathan M %A Rohrer, Jonathan D %A Warren, Jason D %K Aged %K Alzheimer Disease %K Case-Control Studies %K Cognition Disorders %K Emotions %K Female %K Frontotemporal Dementia %K Humans %K Male %K Middle Aged %K Neuropsychological Tests %K Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia %K Psychiatric Status Rating Scales %K Surveys and Questionnaires %X

Sense of humor is potentially relevant to social functioning in dementias, but has been little studied in these diseases. We designed a semi-structured informant questionnaire to assess humor behavior and preferences in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 15), semantic dementia (SD; n = 7), progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA; n = 10), and Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 16) versus healthy age-matched individuals (n = 21). Altered (including frankly inappropriate) humor responses were significantly more frequent in bvFTD and SD (all patients) than PNFA or AD (around 40% of patients). All patient groups liked satirical and absurdist comedy significantly less than did healthy controls. This pattern was reported premorbidly for satirical comedy in bvFTD, PNFA, and AD. Liking for slapstick comedy did not differ between groups. Altered sense of humor is particularly salient in bvFTD and SD, but also frequent in AD and PNFA. Humor may be a sensitive probe of social cognitive impairment in dementia, with diagnostic, biomarker and social implications.

%B J Alzheimers Dis %V 49 %P 111-9 %8 2016 %G eng %N 1 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26444779?dopt=Abstract %R 10.3233/JAD-150413 %0 Journal Article %J J Alzheimers Dis %D 2016 %T Diagnosing Dementia in the Clinical Setting: Can Amyloid PET Provide Additional Value Over Cerebrospinal Fluid? %A Weston, Philip S J %A Paterson, Ross W %A Dickson, John %A Barnes, Anna %A Bomanji, Jamshed B %A Kayani, Irfan %A Lunn, Michael P %A Mummery, Catherine J %A Warren, Jason D %A Rossor, Martin N %A Fox, Nick C %A Zetterberg, Henrik %A Schott, Jonathan M %X

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measures of amyloid and tau are the first-line Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in many clinical centers. We assessed if and when the addition of amyloid PET following CSF measurements provides added diagnostic value. Twenty patients from a cognitive clinic, who had undergone detailed assessment including CSF measures, went on to have amyloid PET. The treating neurologist's working diagnosis, and degree of diagnostic certainty, was assessed both before and after the PET. Amyloid PET changed the diagnosis in 7/20 cases. Amyloid PET can provide added diagnostic value, particularly in young-onset, atypical dementias, where CSF results are borderline and diagnostic uncertainty remains.

%B J Alzheimers Dis %V 54 %P 1297-1302 %8 2016 Oct 18 %G eng %N 4 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27567830?dopt=Abstract %R 10.3233/JAD-160302