Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42684971›Full record

ReviewJournal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD2026

Memory, social cognition, and beyond: Neuropsychological markers differentiating Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia.

Jana Marie Freitag, Franz Felix Konen, Johannes Heck, Kirsten Jahn, Stefanie Groba, Martin Klietz, Thomas Skripuletz, Florian Wegner, Martin Schulze Westhoff, Sebastian Schröder

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Jana Marie FreitagDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.ORCID 0009-0008-4560-8788
Franz Felix KonenPRACTIS Clinician Scientist Program, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Johannes HeckInstitute for General Practice and Palliative Care, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Kirsten JahnLaboratory of Molecular Neurosciences, Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Stefanie GrobaDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Martin KlietzDepartment of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Thomas SkripuletzDepartment of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Florian WegnerDepartment of Neurology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Martin Schulze WesthoffDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Sebastian SchröderDepartment of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-0905-274X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BackgroundDistinguishing Alzheimer's disease (AD) from frontotemporal dementia (FTD) remains a major clinical challenge, particularly in early disease stages due to overlapping symptoms. Although neuropsychological assessment is central to diagnosis, brief cognitive screening instruments often emphasize episodic memory, whereas comprehensive neuropsychological assessment encompasses multiple cognitive domains. Nevertheless, social cognition and other relevant functions may remain underrepresented in routine clinical assessment.ObjectiveTo identify neuropsychological domains and test procedures that reliably differentiate AD from FTD and support differential diagnosis.MethodsA systematic PubMed literature search was conducted using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Original studies directly comparing neuropsychological performance in patients with AD and FTD were included. Owing to methodological heterogeneity, findings were synthesized narratively.ResultsA total of 322 records were identified, of which 80 studies met the inclusion criteria. A clear domain-specific pattern emerged. Episodic memory impairment, particularly delayed recall deficits, consistently distinguished AD from FTD, with poorer performance in AD. In contrast, deficits in social cognition, including theory of mind and emotion recognition, were more pronounced in FTD and were often detectable early in the disease course. Executive functions and language showed heterogeneous findings, with discriminative value depending on specific subdomains and FTD subtypes. Visuospatial functions and attention provided supportive but less consistent differentiation, while global screening instruments showed limited diagnostic specificity.ConclusionsDifferentiation between AD and FTD should not rely on single cognitive domains. The most clinically meaningful distinction is achieved through a multidimensional assessment integrating episodic memory, social cognition, and selected executive and behavioral measures.

Indexed as

Alzheimer's diseasedifferential diagnosisepisodic memoryfrontotemporal dementianeuropsychological assessmentsocial cognition

Identifiers

PMID42684971
PMCPMC13631383

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.