Sunday, 22 July 2012

Cognitive Impairments in Movement Disorders: Alex Troster

Alex Troster will be presenting the following 3-hour workshop at our conference in November.



Much research continues to be devoted to the early diagnosis and treatment of the most common dementia, Alzheimer’s disease. In the last two decades, however, increasing attention has been paid to what were traditionally referred to as “subcortical dementias,” Parkinson’s disease (PD) dementia (PDD) and the rarer dementia associated with Huntington’s disease (HD). The first part of this workshop will deal with the rarer HD and atypical parkinsonian syndromes such as progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, and multiple system atrophy. In the case of HD, particular emphasis will be placed on preclinical neuropsychological characteristics and recent questions about the implications of an “indeterminate” number of CAG repeats. Recent AAN treatment guidelines will also be summarized. For each atypical parkinsonian disorder recent advances in understanding the neural substrates of the disorder (including neuroimaging findings) and treatments are discussed. The neuropsychological differentiation of tauopathies from alpha synucleinopathies, and atypical from typical parkinsonian syndromes will be highlighted. Neuropsychological profiles of some clinical cases will be discussed. The second half of the workshop deals with PD and, consistent with recent research, emphasis is placed on mild cognitive impairment, potential imaging and biomarkers (e.g., beta amyloid and phosphorylated tau), and outcomes of treatments such as gene therapy and deep brain stimulation. The neuropsychological features associated with early dopaminergic deficits are described and differentiated from those probably related to other neurotransmitter abnormalities. Recent diagnostic criteria for PD MCI, and the special emphasis of neuropsychology in them, will be described.

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