Frontotemporal Dementia

Abstract Chapter 9 describes the family of dementias under the umbrella of frontotemporal dementia, including its two main types or variants: frontal behavioral and temporal language. The frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia is then described, including its typical onset earlier in life, the drastic changes in behavior that occur with this form of the disease, and how it appears on brain imaging. The next section deals with the temporal variant, also called primary progressive aphasia and its subtypes—nonfluent and fluent primary progressive aphasia. Finally, a hopeful behavioral therapy for fluent primary progressive aphasia, otherwise known as semantic dementia, is described.