Demência frontotemporal: avaliação da acurácia diagnóstica de testes neuropsicológicos de impulsividade e de controle inibitório

Abstract

The Alzheimer's Disease and the Frontotemporal Dementia are among the most common types of dementia. However, the differential diagnosis between those diseases may not be simple, considering that the cognitive and behavioural symptoms shared by the patients may be the same, e.g. memory impairment and apathy. Therefore, instruments with good diagnostic accuracy are required to identify the cases correctly. Neuropsychological studies in the field of impulsivity and inhibitory control offer the possibility to better differentiate the two types of dementia. The aim of the present study is to analyse a neuropsychological and behavioural assessment protocol, focused on impulsivity and inhibitory control. The adaptation of the Delay Discounting Task to the Brazilian cultural background is also proposed. The main hypothesis is that Frontotemporal Dementia patients will present a more injured performance on the evaluations of impulsivity/inhibitory control, comparatively to patients with Alzheimer's Disease and to healthy controls.