Examining the relation between bilingualism and age of symptom onset in frontotemporal dementia

• Jessica de Leon ^[1] ; Stephanie M. Grasso ^[2] ; Isabel Elaine Allen ^[1] ; Danielle P. Escueta ^[1] ; Yvette Vega ^[1] ; Malihe Eshghavi ^[3] ; Christa Watson ^[1] ; Nina Dronkers ^[4] ; Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini ^[1] ; Maya L. Henry ^[2]
  1. [1] University of California, San Francisco

     University of California, San Francisco

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] University of Texas at Austin

     University of Texas at Austin

     Estados Unidos

     
  3. [3] University of San Francisco

     University of San Francisco

     Estados Unidos

     
  4. [4] University of California System

     University of California System

     Estados Unidos

     

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• Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 27, Nº 2, 2024, págs. 274-286
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/S1366728923000226
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Bilingualism is thought to confer advantages in executive functioning, thereby contributing to cognitive reserve and a later age of dementia symptom onset. While the relation between bilingualism and age of onset has been explored in Alzheimer's dementia, there are few studies examining bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In line with previous findings, we hypothesized that bilinguals with behavioral variant FTD would be older at symptom onset compared to monolinguals, but that no such effect would be found in patients with nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA) or semantic variant PPA. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no significant difference in age at symptom onset between monolingual and bilingual speakers within any of the FTD variants, and there were no notable differences on neuropsychological measures. Overall, our results do not support a protective effect of bilingualism in patients with FTD-spectrum disease in a U.S. based cohort.