Social Cognition and Personality Changes in Alzheimer's & Parkinson's Disease & Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

Assessing Changes in Social Cognition and Personality in Patients with Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease and Their Effect on the Patient-caregiver Relationship

The aim of this study is to compare personality and social cognition changes, including emotion detection and self-awareness, and neuroanatomical correlates in patients, and how that affects the caregiver-patient relationship.

The purpose of this study is to understand social cognition changes in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), which includes Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD - behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, progressive non-fluent aphasia and semantic dementia), and the effect of these changes on the patients' relationship with their caregivers. In addition, the study aims to provide a greater clarity in the neuroanatomical correlates of social cognition in patients with FTLD, PD and AD.

Inclusion Criteria:

Patients:

• ability to speak and understand the English language (as questionnaires and tests are only available in English)

Caregivers:

• primary caregiver for a given patient
• ability to speak and understand the English language (as questionnaires and tests are only available in English)

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients and Caregivers:

• history of another neurological disorder
• psychiatric disorder
• severe aphasia (semantic word loss)
• visual deficits requiring correction beyond the use of eyeglasses or contact lenses (intact visual acuity is required for completing both the questionnaires and the emotion evaluation test which consists of video vignettes)
• auditory deficits requiring correction beyond hearing aids (videos have auditory component)

Patients:

• presence of pacemakers, aneurysm clips, artificial heart valves, ear implants, metal fragments or foreign objects in the eyes, skin or body will be excluded as they will be unable to have a MRI scan.
• premenopausal women will be excluded due to the unknown risk of MRIs during pregnancy.