Two cases of food aversion with semantic dementia

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of neuropsychological findings in patients with semantic dementia and food aversion.

COGNITIVE DOMAIN	CASE 1	CASE 2
General characteristics
Age	57	58
Symptom duration (years)	7	5
MMSE (/30)	25	24
General intellect
WASI Verbal IQ	76	66
WASI Performance IQ	107	99
Executive skills
Stroop D-KEFS color naming (s)	37	53
Stroop D-KEFS word naming (s)	22	25
Stroop D-KEFS ink color naming (s)	40	84
Trails Part A (s)	19	40
Trails Part B (s)	70	122
Language skills
GNT (/30)	2	0
BPVS (/150)	117*	52*
Concrete synonyms (/25)^†	18	12
Abstract synonyms (/25)^†	12	13
Episodic memory
RMT faces (/50)	28	42
RMT words (/50)	39	43
Other skills
WMS-R Digit Span Forward (max)	8	6
WMS-R Digit Span Reverse (max)	7	4
GDA (/24)	4	2
VOSP Object Decision (/20)	14	16

Raw scores are shown with maximum scores in parentheses for each neuropsychological test unless otherwise indicated. Scores at or below the 5th percentile on standardized tests based on published norms are indicated in bold.

* Below 5th percentile referenced to a local cohort of 15 healthy age-matched females.

^†Warrington, McKenna, and Orpwood (1998); BPVS, British Picture Vocabulary Scale (Dunn, Dunn, & Whetton, 1982); D-KEFS, Delis Kaplan Executive Function System (Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001); GDA, Graded Difficulty Arithmetic (Jackson & Warrington, 1986); GNT, Graded Naming Test (McKenna & Warrington, 1983); MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination score (Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975); NART, National Adult Reading Test (Nelson, 1982); PAL, Paired Associate Learning; RMT, Recognition Memory Test (Warrington, 1984); VOSP, Visual Object and Spatial Perception Battery (Warrington & James, 1991); WASI, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999); WMS-R, Wechsler Memory Scale Revised (Wechsler, 1987).

Figure 1. Brain MRI profiles in patients with semantic dementia and food aversion.

Representative coronal T1-weighted MR sections through the anterior temporal lobes are presented for each of the patients described; the left hemisphere is shown on the right for both sections. In each case, there is relatively focal, asymmetric atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes, most marked medially and inferiorly (predominantly right-sided though bilateral in Case 1, predominantly left-sided in Case 2).

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