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F Boller

Publications and source records attributed to F Boller.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1999

Remote memory in Alzheimer's disease.

The authors examined the severity and type of deficits in remote memory in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the first study, 40 AD patients showed significantly more severe deficits on both the free-recall and the recognition sections of the Remote Memory Scale (which measures memory for famous people and well-known events) compared with normal control subjects. In the second study, 25 AD patients showed significantly more deficits on the free-recall section of the Autobiographical Memory Scale compared with normal control subjects. Remote memory deficits in AD may be related to both retrieval deficits and damage to memory traces.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

[Neuropsychological aspects of Alzheimer's disease].

This analysis is centered on the study of cognitive disorders in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), mainly for major neuropsychological functions. We insist on the heterogeneity of the clinical picture especially in the early stages of the illness, when deficits of episodic memory and executive functions are prevalent. We consider that studying early stages of the illness is necessary to delineate the diagnostic signs, to validate the new therapeutic experiments, to predict stages of decline.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

History of dementia and dementia in history: an overview.

The history of dementia is probably as old as mankind itself. In recent years, considerable advances have been made in our understanding of the epidemiology, the pathogenesis and the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders, and the nosology of these disorders is under scrutiny. Furthermore, we are witnessing the emergence of therapeutic agents specifically designed to enhance memory and cognition in AD patients. Despite the limited efficacy of the agents currently available, their introduction has shed an entirely new light on the field. We therefore feel that this is a good time to look at the past to understand the present and perhaps gain insight into the future. This paper reviews the history of dementia and of attitudes about dementia as documented in early medical writings, in recorded history and in the arts. It also examines developments that occurred in Alois Alzheimer's time as well as closer to our day.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1998

Discrimination of facial identity and of emotions in Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate processing of human faces identity and of emotional expressions in patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). BACKGROUND: Mechanisms responsible for discriminating facial identity may be dissociated from those involved in discriminating facial expressions. Patients with prosopagnosia often have preserved capacities for processing emotional facial expressions and occasionally, patients with focal lesions may recognize human faces without being able to recognize their facial expression. Such a dissociation has not been clearly shown in groups of AD patients. METHODS: Thirty-one probable AD patients and 14 control subjects were administered tasks of discrimination of faces and of emotions. RESULTS: AD patients were significantly impaired in discriminating facial identities and in naming and pointing to named emotions, but were comparable to controls in discriminating facial expressions of emotion. The deficits of facial discrimination and of identification of emotions were, on the whole, correlated with the MMS and Raven scores. Discrimination of emotions was not correlated to either test, suggesting that this ability is based on cognitive processes different from those underlying the MMS and the PM47. CONCLUSIONS: This dissociation implies two separate systems, one dedicated to discrimination of facial identities and the other to discrimination of emotions. This is compatible with the modular organization of cognitive deficits in AD and may explain the well known experience that nonverbal communication often remains effective even in patients with severe dementia.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1998

The influence of semantic and perceptual encoding on recognition memory in Alzheimer's disease.

Previous results from a population of patients with Alzheimer's disease (Dalla Barba and Goldblum, 1996) demonstrated that the ability of patients to make a semantic association between two items was significantly and positively correlated to their performance on a yes/no recognition task for the same items and that patients who were impaired on the semantic task did significantly worse on the recognition task than patients who were unimpaired on the semantic task. These findings gave support to a hierarchical model of organization of human memory in which episodic memory depends on the integrity of semantic memory. The present study further investigates the relationship between semantic memory deficits and episodic recognition memory in 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 15 controls, as a function of their semantic and perceptual encoding abilities and of their cognitive impairment in other domains. The results confirmed the previous findings and showed that, although patients heavily relied on perceptual analysis, this type of encoding did not enhance their recognition memory. Correlations analyses showed that some patients who were not impaired in the semantic association, but with particularly low scores on a verbal fluency task presented with a pattern, in recognition memory tasks, that suggests a possible early involvement of frontal lobes in this subgroup of patients.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Memory and depression in Parkinson's disease.

Disorders of learning and memory are a frequent finding in nondemented Parkinson disease (PD) patients. It is not clear to what extent depression, present in at least half the cases of PD, contributes to these disorders. This paper investigates the possible influence of depression on tests of episodic memory in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We studied three groups of 11 subjects each (controls, non-depressed PD, mildly to moderately depressed PD). Neuropsychological tests included tests of short and long-term memory in verbal and non-verbal modalities. The two groups of PD patients performed significantly worse than controls on the memory tests, but there were no differences between the depressed and non-depressed PD patients. This lack of influence of depression on neuropsychological performance is compatible with Starkstein's view that cognitive imnpairment is only found beyond a given threshold of depression severity.Copyright Lippincott-Raven Publishers

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

Memory and language in neurodegenerative diseases.

This article reviews recent studies concerning memory and language disorders in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions. It shows how different memory and language subcomponents may differentially be impaired in different neurodegenerative diseases and at different stages of the same disease.

Alzheimer Disease↗
PubMed1998

Neuropsychological prediction of dementia in Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE: To identify neuropsychological characteristics predictive of later dementia in Parkinson's disease. METHODS: A comprehensive neuropsychological test battery was administered to a cohort of 89 initially non-demented patients with Parkinson's disease consecutively enrolled at a specialised Parkinson's disease clinic. They were reassessed after a mean of 3.5 years for the diagnosis of dementia. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify baseline characteristics predictive of dementia. RESULTS: Only four of the baseline clinical characteristics of Parkinson's disease and neuropsychological variables remained independently linked to subsequent development of dementia: the age of onset of Parkinson's disease (>60 years; relative risk (RR) 4.1, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.8-24.0, p<0.03), the picture completion subtest of the Wechsler adult intelligence scale (score<10; RR 4.9, 95% CI 1.0-24.1, p<0.02), the interference section of the Stroop test (score<21; RR 3.8, p=0.08), and a verbal fluency task (score<9; RR 2.7, 95% CI 0.8-9.1, p=0.09). Depressive symptoms and the severity of motor impairment were not predictive of dementia. CONCLUSION: These features are different from the neuropsychological characteristics predictive of Alzheimer's dementia in healthy elderly people (mainly memory and language performance). They are in keeping with the well known specificity of the impairments in Parkinson's disease for visuospatial abilities and difficulties in inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. It is postulated that the composite nature of the picture completion subtest, involving several cognitive abilities impaired in Parkinson's disease, explains its sensitivity.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Disruption of residual reading capacity in a pure alexic patient after a mirror-image right-hemispheric lesion.

A 74-year-old woman became a letter-by-letter reader after the occurrence of a left occipito-temporal hematoma. Seven months later, she suffered a second, mirror-image hematoma in the right hemisphere. After this second lesion, her residual reading capacity deteriorated dramatically in terms of both accuracy and reading latencies for words and isolated letters. Our findings support the hypothesis that the right hemisphere contributes to the residual reading capacities of pure alexic patients.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Right-side neglect in Alzheimer's disease.

Unilateral neglect--the inability to pay attention to events occurring on one side of space--usually occurs for left-side events after focal right-hemisphere damage. We report a 73-year-old woman with probable AD and no evidence of focal brain lesions who showed signs of right-side neglect and extinction. Neglect was more severe after 1 year. Neuroimaging techniques demonstrated an asymmetry of cortical involvement, with cortical atrophy and hypoperfusion predominant in the left posterior regions. Unilateral neglect should be assessed systematically in AD.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Age dependence of the T2-weighted MRI signal in brain structures of a prosimian primate (Microcebus murinus).

Mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) are prosimian primates described to be convenient models of brain aging. We observed very high correlations between the T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal decrease and the natural logarithm of age in the basal ganglia. The correlation coefficient was higher for the pallidum (r = 0.95, P < 0.0001) than for other structures. We suggest that the ratio of the pallidum intensity divided by the amygdala and temporal lobe intensity should be a valuable non-invasive marker of age and of cerebral aging. It should be particularly useful for the non-invasive assessment of interventions and drugs that affect the aging process.

Aging↗
PubMed1997

Extrapyramidal signs in patients with probable Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether extrapyramidal signs (EPSs) were associated with more rapid progression of Alzheimer disease (AD). DESIGN: Cross-sectional with longitudinal follow-up and the likelihood of arriving at 4 end points: Mini-Mental State Examination score of less than 9, Blessed Dementia Rating Scale score for activities of daily living of 15 or more, institutionalization, and death using a proportional hazard model with 6 variables: overall EPSs, bradykinesia, tremors, abnormal gait, cogwheel rigidity, and postural instability. SETTING: Multidisciplinary behavioral neurology research clinic. PATIENTS: We examined the individual EPS characteristics of 164 patients with mild-moderately probable AD, free of neuroleptic medication, participating in a longitudinal study of dementia. RESULTS: Patients with AD with EPSs (n= 51 [31%]) were older (P>.001) and had lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores (P=.003) than those without EPSs at study entry. Bradykinesia was present in 35 (69%) of the 51 patients with EPSs, abnormal gait in 18 (35%), rigidity in 10 (20%), postural instability in 10 (20%), tremors in 7 (14%), and oral-mandibular dyskinesia in 2 (4%). Using proportional hazard analysis with time-dependent covariates for overall EPSs and individual EPSs, adjusted by age at study entry, education, Mini-Mental State Examination score, and Blessed Dementia Rating Scale score for activities of daily living, the development of EPSs was associated with time to institutionalization (P<.001) but not with cognitive (eg, Mini-Mental State Examination score <9) or functional (eg, Blessed Dementia Rating Scale score > or = 15) decline or death. However, when we examined severity of the EPSs, as measured by the New York University Parkinson's Disease Scale, the development of EPSs was associated with functional decline (P=.005). Of the individual EPSs, rigidity predicted death (P<.001) and institutionalization (P=.03), whereas tremors predicted functional decline (P=.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, the presence or absence of EPSs is related to time to institutionalization, but not to severe cognitive or functional impairment or death. However, when severity of the extrapyramidal phenomenon is taken into account, EPSs are related to functional decline. Further, it appears that a subgroup of patients with AD with EPSs, where cogwheel rigidity and tremors are the core signs, can have a worse outcome.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Frontal lobes pathology and dementia. An appraisal of the contribution of Leonardo Bianchi.

This paper which was inspired by Leonardo Bianchi's work, published in English a hundred years ago, summarizes the main features of frontal dementias, with particular emphasis on Pick's Disease (PiD) and on Frontal Lobe Dementia (FLD). We intend to examine on one hand whether these behavioral changes follow pathology strictly limited to the frontal lobes and on the other hand whether these changes truly constitute a dementia. Currently available data suggest the following conclusions: 1) Lesions to the frontal lobes produce a dementia which is clearly different from the typical picture of Alzheimer's disease and which can be called a behavioral dementia. 2) The pathology of the so-called frontal dementias usually extends beyond the limits of the prefrontal cortex. 3) Executive functions classically thought to be related to frontal lobe structures are in fact associated with structures outside the frontal lobes, particularly in the telencephalic and limbic cortex. These findings in no way diminish the value of the work of Leonardo Bianchi. Rather, they strengthen it. We consider that the work of this great Neuroscientist remains highly relevant and that after 100 years, it still represents the starting basis for further works and ideas.

Dementia↗
PubMed1997

EEG spectral abnormalities and psychosis as predictors of cognitive and functional decline in probable Alzheimer's disease.

We examined whether either psychotic features (e.g., delusions and hallucinations) or EEG abnormalities are associated with more rapid progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD patients with psychosis have exhibited more EEG abnormalities than those without psychosis, and both abnormal EEG and psychosis have been noted to be predictors of functional and cognitive decline in AD. Ninety-five probable AD patients participating in a longitudinal study of dementia had an EEG and a semistructured psychiatric interview at baseline. Using EEG spectral analysis, we classified records as normal/abnormal based on the parasagittal mean frequency. Patients with abnormal EEGs were more functionally (e.g., Blessed Rating Scale for activities of daily living) and cognitively (e.g., Mini-Mental State) impaired than patients with normal EEG. AD patients with psychosis were only more functionally impaired than patients without psychosis. A two-factor analysis showed no interaction between abnormal EEG and psychosis. In addition, using a Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for age and education, the presence of an abnormal EEG or psychotic symptom at study entry was associated with higher risk of reaching severe cognitive and functional impairment during follow-up. Neither abnormal EEG nor the presence of psychosis predicted death. These results indicate that both abnormal EEG and psychosis are independent predictors of disease progression but not of physical survival.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease with features of obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa: the role of cortical-subcortical systems.

The authors examined the clinical and neuropathological characteristics of a patient who developed features of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia nervosa (AN) as the initial presentation of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. He had mild Parkinsonism and showed deficits in visual scanning, set shifting, graphomotor speed, sequencing, and verbal and nonverbal memory. Neuropathological study showed spongiosis and neuronal loss in cortical (e.g., frontal, temporal, parietal), and especially in subcortical structures (e.g., basal ganglia, thalamus). This study supports the hypothesis of abnormal frontal-striatal functioning in the cause of OCD, even in demented subjects. In addition, the authors discuss the role of frontal-temporal-subcortical dysfunction in the cause of acquired AN.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Classification deficits in Alzheimer's disease with special reference to living and nonliving things.

The present study was conducted to assess the hypothesis that visual similarity between exemplars within a semantic category may affect differentially the recognition process of living and nonliving things, according to task demands, in patients with semantic memory disorders. Thirty-nine Alzheimer's patients and 39 normal elderly subjects were presented with a task in which they had to classify pictures and words, depicting either living or nonliving things, at two levels of classification: subordinate (e.g., mammals versus birds or tools versus vehicles) and attribute (e.g., wild versus domestic animals or fast versus slow vehicles). Contrary to previous results (Montañes, Goldblum, & Boller, 1995) in a naming task, but as expected, living things were better classified than nonliving ones by both controls and patients. As expected, classifications at the subordinate level also gave rise to better performance than classifications at the attribute level. Although (and somewhat unexpectedly) no advantage of picture over word classification emerged, some effects consistent with the hypothesis that visual similarity affects picture classification emerged, in particular within a subgroup of patients with predominant verbal deficits and the most severe semantic memory disorders. This subgroup obtained a better score on classification of pictures than of words depicting living items (that share many visual features) when classification is at the subordinate level (for which visual similarity is a reliable clue to classification), but met with major difficulties when classifying those pictures at the attribute level (for which shared visual features are not reliable clues to classification). These results emphasize the fact that some "normal" effects specific to items in living and nonliving categories have to be considered among the factors causing selective category-specific deficits in patients, as well as their relevance in achieving tasks which require either differentiation between competing exemplars in the same semantic category (naming) or detection of resemblance between those exemplars (categorization).

Aged↗