Evaluation of apathy by single 3D accelerometer in ecological condition : Case of patients with behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia

Abstract

Apathy is a neurological symptom common to several brain diseases (e.g., behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia, bvFTD). It can be defined as a quantitative reduction of voluntary or goal-directed behavior. ECOCAPTURE is a method developed to assess apathy in a quantitative and objective way. It consists in the observation of patient’s behavior in a multi-step scenario reproducing a brief, real-life situation. It is performed in a functional exploration platform transformed into a waiting room equipped with video and sensor-based data acquisition system. The use of 3D accelerometer is well-established to assess subject’s movement during activities (i.e. actigraphy). We described the method and the preliminary results in patients (n=12) with bvFTD matched to healthy participants (n=11). This actigraphy study aims to retain some metrics leading to a differentiation between patients and control subjects.