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Background: Dementia with Lewy body (DLB) is a common neurodegenerative disease that warrants specific care, which remains largely underdiagnosed. Our objective was to assess the knowledge of DLB by health professionals in comparison with that of Alzheimer's disease (AD), to better understand the reasons of its under-diagnosis., Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical study processing the results of an online questionnaire submitted to French healthcare professionals between December 1, 2020 and March 1, 2021., Results: A total of 490 healthcare professionals responded to the questionnaire. We observed a poorer knowledge of DLB compared to AD both subjective as highlighted on the self-assessment questionnaires and objective since the diagnostic criteria and therapeutic specificities were less known for DLB compared to AD., Conclusions: DLB appears as a disease that is still too poorly known by health professionals. To improve training is therefore a decisive objective in order to optimize the therapeutic care and support of patients with DLB and their relatives.

Unlabelled: Recent studies suggest that executive functions are among the first cognitive functions to decline with normal aging., Methods: We studied the effect of age on executive functions using a set of 13 arithmetic word problems including 9 problems of increasing complexity which were solvable in 2, 3, 4 operations, and 4 aberrant problems. Three groups participated in the study: 18 young, 18 adult and 18 elderly participants., Results: The results showed that elderly participants were more impaired to resolve complex arithmetic word problems, without deficit in their ability to eliminate aberrant problems., Conclusion: The current elderly sample has a dissociated pattern of performance similar to that of some patients with frontal lobe lesions. In these patients, relations were found between the inability to generate correct algorithms of resolution for arithmetic word problems of increasing complexity and lesions in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and between the impaired inhibition of unsolvable word problems and lesions in the orbitofrontal regions. We suggest that cognitive aging could be better interpreted in terms of changes in some frontal systems rather than in all-encompassing frontal deterioration.

Introduction: Executive dysfunction is regularly reported in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless few studies have focused on planning ability in this neurodegenerative disease., Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the formulation and the execution of plans in Alzheimer's disease using an ecological planning subtask derived from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome test battery, the "Zoo Map Test". There are two trials. The first trial consists of a "high demand" version of the subtask in which the subjects must plan in advance the order in which they will visit designated locations in a zoo (formulation level). In the second, or "low demand" version, the subject is simply required to follow a concrete externally imposed strategy to reach the locations to visit (execution level). The test was given to 16 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 13 normal elderly subjects., Results: The two way ANOVAs mainly showed more difficulties in patients with Alzheimer's disease than in healthy elderly in both conditions. The difference between formulation and execution was greater in patients with Alzheimer's disease than in healthy elderly. Planning impairments mainly correlated with behavioural changes (in particular motivational changes) observed by patient's relatives., Conclusion: These results suggest that patients with Alzheimer's disease have some problems to mentally develop logical strategies and to execute complex predetermined plans, which are partially related to behavioural changes.