Stephanie Wong

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second leading cause of early-onset dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease (AD). While both bvFTD and AD patients perform poorly on tests of memory, these impairments are likely due to the degeneration of different brain regions. Identifying these differences will be critical for accurate diagnosis of these neurodegenerative conditions. Furthermore, Ms Wong aims to develop novel memory tasks, which improve the specificity of current tests and can serve as screening tools to distinguish between memory impairments in bvFTD and AD. Improvements in diagnostic accuracy will facilitate the implementation of appropriate treatment strategies and patient care.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second leading cause of early-onset dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Patients with the behavioural variant of FTD (bvFTD) typically present with changes to social behaviour and empathy, loss of motivation and impaired higher-level thinking. While memory impairment is a hallmark feature of AD, it has only recently been recognised in bvFTD. As both patient groups perform similarly poorly on widely used memory tests, accurate diagnosis can be difficult. However, memory impairments in bvFTD and AD are likely due to the degeneration of different brain regions. This project aims to explore the impact of prefrontal cortex degeneration on memory impairment using cognitive tasks, which are sensitive to damage in these regions. 

To date, Stephanie’s research has examined whether performance on existing tasks can distinguish between memory impairments in bvFTD and AD, and how this relates to regions of brain degeneration seen on MRI brain scans. Stephanie’s goal is to continue to develop novel memory tasks, which increase the specificity of current tests and can serve as screening tools to distinguish between memory impairments in bvFTD and AD. Improvements in diagnostic accuracy will facilitate the implementation of appropriate treatment strategies and patient care.

Ms Wong is a PhD candidate based at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University in NSW.