Impaired Theory of Mind in Alzheimer’s Dementia and Frontotemporal Dementia: Discriminative ability of the Hinting Task - NL

Impairments in social cognition are common in dementia. However, tests to measure differences in social cognition are underrepresented in neuropsychological diagnosis of dementia. Measures of social cognition could aid the earlier diagnosis and differential diagnosis between AD and FTD. The Hinting Task - Dutch version (Hinting Task - NL) measures the ability to infer the true intent of indirect speech as an indicator of Theory of Mind ability, one aspect of social cognition. This study examined the Hinting Task - NL on its ability to differentiate between control participants (n = 99) and patients with dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), n = 26; Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) (behavioral variant (bv-FTD), n = 21; and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), n = 21)). Between-group differences on the Hinting Task - NL were examined and associations with demographic variables and neuropsychological tests were explored. The study also includes an exploratory analysis where the Hinting Task -...Show moreImpairments in social cognition are common in dementia. However, tests to measure differences in social cognition are underrepresented in neuropsychological diagnosis of dementia. Measures of social cognition could aid the earlier diagnosis and differential diagnosis between AD and FTD. The Hinting Task - Dutch version (Hinting Task - NL) measures the ability to infer the true intent of indirect speech as an indicator of Theory of Mind ability, one aspect of social cognition. This study examined the Hinting Task - NL on its ability to differentiate between control participants (n = 99) and patients with dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), n = 26; Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) (behavioral variant (bv-FTD), n = 21; and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), n = 21)). Between-group differences on the Hinting Task - NL were examined and associations with demographic variables and neuropsychological tests were explored. The study also includes an exploratory analysis where the Hinting Task - NL was compared to the emotion recognition task (ERT), another measure of social cognition, on their ability to discriminate between control participants and patients with dementia. Results showed that the Hinting Task - NL discriminated well between control participants and patients with dementia (p < 0.001), but not between patients with AD and patients with FTD (p = 0.252). Performance on the Hinting Task - NL did not differ between patients with bv-FTD and PPA (p = 0.550). The Hinting Task - NL was found to have similar sensitivity and specificity as the ERT in discriminating between control participants and patients with dementia. To conclude, the Hinting Task - NL is a valid test and can be used in neuropsychological diagnosis of dementia, but not to discriminate between two common subtypes of dementia.Show less

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Impaired Theory of Mind in Alzheimer’s Dementia and Frontotemporal Dementia: Discriminative ability of the Hinting Task - NL