semantic dementia and alzheimer's

Question 1

what is semantic dementia and how does it present?

Answer 1

SD is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized my loss of semantic memory. it presents as atrophy in the ATL and manifests as general semantic deficits

Question 2

what are some symptoms of SD?

Answer 2

• degraded knowledge of objects/concepts/people both in spontaneous speech and in response to stimuli
• most other cognitive functions are unaffected

Question 3

what is dementia and what does it include?

Answer 3

a condition characterized my increased loss of intellectual functioning. the umbrella term includes Alzheimer’s dementia, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia (SD), etc.

Question 4

what is alzheimer’s disease (AD)?

Answer 4

a neurodegenerative disorder and the most common form of dementia. characterized by persistent deficits in domains like memory, judgement, language, etc.

Question 5

what progress does AD follow?

Answer 5

it begins in the olfactory cortex and first affects the hippocampus (memory), later moving to the surrounding tissue and the superior frontal lobe

Question 6

what are the language related symptoms of AD?

Answer 6

• overuse / misuse of pronouns
• common substitution of words
• low information content when speaking
• speech is very fluent but lacks coherence
• in the early stages, patient is unaware of their deficit

Question 7

what is one main difference between SD and AD?

Answer 7

(at least in the early stages of AD) AD patients are still able to retain semantic meaning but struggle with anomia, while SD patients are not able to retain semantic meaning