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Working memory in posterior cortical atrophy

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Abstract

We used an ad hoc created neuropsychological battery to evaluate in details both verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) in patients with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA, n = 5). PCA is a rare, early-onset neurodegenerative dementia, often due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. Clinically, PCA patients present with visual, visuospatial, and visuomotor deficits, and no memory complaints. PCA patients’ patterns of performance were compared with those of 11 typical, amnestic AD patients matched for disease severity, as well as with 17 age-matched healthy controls. Both groups of patients had impaired WM performance compared to controls. However, PCA patients were more impaired than typical AD patients for both verbal and visuospatial WM. Moreover, PCA patients showed a more consistent impairment of visuospatial WM, as compared with verbal WM. Systematic WM evaluation should be part of the standard assessment in PCA. WM deficits affect patients’ quality of life and can be detrimental to rehabilitation programs.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Arthur Tenenhaus and Vincent Guillmot for their suggestions on the “Statistical analyses” section.

Funding

Raffaella Migliaccio is financially supported by “France Alzheimer” and “Philippe Chatrier” foundations. This research has received funding from the program “Investissements d’avenir” ANR-10- IAIHU-06.

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Author notes

  1. Paolo Bartolomeo and Raffaella Migliaccio contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Institut du cerveau et de la moelle épinière (ICM), Sorbonne Université, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France

    Laura Trotta, Delphine Lamoureux, Paolo Bartolomeo & Raffaella Migliaccio

  2. Department of Nervous System Diseases, Institut de la mémoire et de la maladie d’Alzheimer (IM2A), Centre de référence “démences rares”, Neurology, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, , Paris, France

    Laura Trotta, Delphine Lamoureux & Raffaella Migliaccio

Authors
  1. Laura Trotta
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  2. Delphine Lamoureux
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  3. Paolo Bartolomeo
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  4. Raffaella Migliaccio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raffaella Migliaccio.

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This study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was promoted by the INSERM (C10-49) and approved by the Ile-de-France I Ethics Committee. Written informed consent has been given by all participants.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Trotta, L., Lamoureux, D., Bartolomeo, P. et al. Working memory in posterior cortical atrophy. Neurol Sci 40, 1713–1716 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-03869-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-03869-5

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