Alzforum’s coverage of the 2021 International Conference on Frontotemporal Dementias continues with a closer look into neuropsychological tests.  

During the conference, researchers described the different tests that examine deficits in social and emotional cognition. According to the Alzforum article, Katherine Rankin of the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues have been working to validate four socioemotional tests in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center’s (NACC) FTD module.  

One test, the revised self-monitoring scale (RSMS), allows a caregiver, care partner, or a clinician to gauge the social impairment of a person diagnosed with FTD. Researchers also discussed the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) test, which measures a person’s level of empathy.  

Most of these tests, however, require caregivers and clinicians to be the test’s administrator. But researchers are devising tests, such as the Dynamic Affect Recognition Test (DART), that allow the person that is diagnosed with FTD or who has presymptomatic mutation carriers to perform the test on their own. 

The International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias virtually convened the 12th International Conference on FTD March 3-5. Read the full Alzforum article here.  

Additional installments in the series can be found here:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Six

Part Seven