Theory of mind in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease: A meta-analysis

Abstract

© 2015 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.Current evidence suggests that neurocognitive testing has limited practical benefit in distinguishing behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this meta-analysis of 30 studies, theory of mind (ToM) performances of 784 individuals with bvFTD (n=273) and AD (n=511) were compared with 671 healthy controls. ToM performances of 227 patients with bvFTD and 229 with AD were also compared in studies matched for general cognition. ToM was impaired in both bvFTD (d=1.79) and AD (d=1.15). In bvFTD, patients were particularly impaired in advanced tasks such as recognition of faux pas and sarcasm (d<2.0). In AD, ToM defici..