Comparison between verbal and visual working memory in subjects with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s participating in the Redlat study

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundAlterations in working memory have been reported in people with Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal degeneration, and have been associated with executive impairment related to the frontal areas of the brain.MethodThe objective of this work is to compare the capacity of verbal and visual working memory in a sample of 70 Colombian people with dementia (32 with Alzheimer’s Dementia and 30 with Frontotemporal Dementia and 22 healthy controls) participating in the RedLat study. For this, the performance in a digit retention task and the Short Term Memory Binding Test (STMB) are studied.ResultIn general, there is a decrease in the performance of the two groups of patients (AD and FTD). Also AD patients shows worst performance at visual working memory tasks. Results shows differences between dementia groups and controls, but not between AD and FTD.ConclusionThis converges with what has been reported about the dissociation between verbal and visual working memory, and could suggest alternative strategies for the recall of immediate information. Additionally, both low performances are explained by differents reasons in each neurodegenerative disorder.