impacts of dementia
c o r t e x 4 8 ( 2 0 1 2 ) 4 2 9 e4 4 6
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex
Research report
Working memory, attention, and executive function in
Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia
Cheryl L. Stopford*, Jennifer C. Thompson, David Neary, Anna M.T. Richardson and
Julie S. Snowden
Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Neurosciences
Research Group, University of Manchester, UK
article info
abstract
Article history:
Working memory deficits are a recognised feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). They are
Received 8 March 2010
commonly ascribed to central executive impairment and assumed to relate to frontal lobe
Revised 21 May 2010
dysfunction. Performance failures on standard tests of attention and executive function
Accepted 7 December 2010
reinforce this interpretation. Nevertheless, early-onset AD patients do not show the frank
Action editor Sergio Della Sala
behavioural changes indicative of frontal lobe dysfunction, and the characteristic functional
Published online 21 December 2010
neuroimaging changes are in posterior hemispheres rather than frontal lobes. We explored this anomaly through a comparison of working memory, attention and executive test
Keywords:
performance in patients with AD (a ‘typical’ early-onset group with deficits in memory,
Alzheimer’s disease
language and perceptuospatial function and an ‘amnesic’ group) and frontotemporal
Working memory
dementia (FTD). Typical-AD and FTD patients both showed impaired performance, whereas
Executive function
amnesic-AD patients performed well. Despite similar quantitative performance measures,
Attention
typical-AD and FTD patients showed qualitatively distinct performance profiles. Impair-
Phenotypic variation
ments in FTD patients were interpreted in ‘frontal’ executive terms as
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cortex
Research report
Working memory, attention, and executive function in
Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia
Cheryl L. Stopford*, Jennifer C. Thompson, David Neary, Anna M.T. Richardson and
Julie S. Snowden
Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Neurosciences
Research Group, University of Manchester, UK
article info
abstract
Article history:
Working memory deficits are a recognised feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). They are
Received 8 March 2010
commonly ascribed to central executive impairment and assumed to relate to frontal lobe
Revised 21 May 2010
dysfunction. Performance failures on standard tests of attention and executive function
Accepted 7 December 2010
reinforce this interpretation. Nevertheless, early-onset AD patients do not show the frank
Action editor Sergio Della Sala
behavioural changes indicative of frontal lobe dysfunction, and the characteristic functional
Published online 21 December 2010
neuroimaging changes are in posterior hemispheres rather than frontal lobes. We explored this anomaly through a comparison of working memory, attention and executive test
Keywords:
performance in patients with AD (a ‘typical’ early-onset group with deficits in memory,
Alzheimer’s disease
language and perceptuospatial function and an ‘amnesic’ group) and frontotemporal
Working memory
dementia (FTD). Typical-AD and FTD patients both showed impaired performance, whereas
Executive function
amnesic-AD patients performed well. Despite similar quantitative performance measures,
Attention
typical-AD and FTD patients showed qualitatively distinct performance profiles. Impair-
Phenotypic variation
ments in FTD patients were interpreted in ‘frontal’ executive terms as