Cueing to facilitate naming in MAPT -associated behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: a preliminary report

Objective Naming deficits have been documented in carriers of pathogenic MAPT mutations with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We aimed to examine the benefits of phonemic cueing to facilitate naming in MAPT-bvFTD. Method MAPT mutation carriers with incipient bvFTD (N = 6) completed a test of confrontation naming during their very mild disease stage, and again ~2 years later. The proportion of correct responses with and without phonemic cueing was calculated. MAPT-bvFTD naming performance was compared to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (N = 6) and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) (N = 14). Results Phonemic cueing facilitated naming in the MAPT-bvFTD and Alzheimer’s groups at the mildest disease stage, and the utility of cues declined over time for both groups. Cueing provided minimal benefit in svPPA, even at the mildest disease stage. Conclusions Phonemic cueing confers some benefit in MAPT-bvFTD at the very early stages of disease, similar to AD, but in contrast to svPPA.