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Altered sense of humor in dementia.

Clark, CN; Nicholas, JM; Gordon, E; Golden, HL; Cohen, MH; Woodward, FJ; Macpherson, K; Slattery, CF; Mummery, CJ; Schott, JM; et al. Clark, CN; Nicholas, JM; Gordon, E; Golden, HL; Cohen, MH; Woodward, FJ; Macpherson, K; Slattery, CF; Mummery, CJ; Schott, JM; Rohrer, JD; Warren, JD (2016) Altered sense of humor in dementia. J Alzheimers Dis, 49 (1). pp. 111-119. ISSN 1875-8908 https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-150413
SGUL Authors: Clark, Camilla Neegaard

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Abstract

Sense of humor is potentially relevant to social functioning in dementias, but has been little studied in these diseases. We designed a semi-structured informant questionnaire to assess humor behavior and preferences in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 15), semantic dementia (SD; n = 7), progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA; n = 10), and Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 16) versus healthy age-matched individuals (n = 21). Altered (including frankly inappropriate) humor responses were significantly more frequent in bvFTD and SD (all patients) than PNFA or AD (around 40% of patients). All patient groups liked satirical and absurdist comedy significantly less than did healthy controls. This pattern was reported premorbidly for satirical comedy in bvFTD, PNFA, and AD. Liking for slapstick comedy did not differ between groups. Altered sense of humor is particularly salient in bvFTD and SD, but also frequent in AD and PNFA. Humor may be a sensitive probe of social cognitive impairment in dementia, with diagnostic, biomarker and social implications.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2016 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved This article is published online with Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY).
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, comedy, dementia, frontotemporal dementia, humor, progressive aphasia, semantic dementia, Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Case-Control Studies, Cognition Disorders, Emotions, Female, Frontotemporal Dementia, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Surveys and Questionnaires, Humans, Alzheimer Disease, Case-Control Studies, Emotions, Cognition Disorders, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Neuropsychological Tests, Aged, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia, Frontotemporal Dementia, Surveys and Questionnaires, 1103 Clinical Sciences, 1702 Cognitive Sciences, 1109 Neurosciences, Neurology & Neurosurgery
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute (MCS)
Journal or Publication Title: J Alzheimers Dis
ISSN: 1875-8908
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
2016Published
30 July 2015Accepted
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
091673Wellcome Trusthttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440
193Alzheimer's SocietyUNSPECIFIED
MR/M008525/1Medical Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
091673/Z/10/ZWellcome Trusthttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440
PubMed ID: 26444779
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/111498
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-150413

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