Relearning knowledge for people in a case of right variant frontotemporal dementia

Right variant frontotemporal dementia (Rvt-FTD) is a rare variant of FTD that usually presents with a progressive difficulty in recognizing familiar people. We aimed to determine whether rehabilitation of semantic knowledge for people improves recognition by both verbal and visual channels in a patient with Rvt-FTD. Knowledge for 21 famous people was assessed in a patient with Rvt-FTD before and after completing a semantic rehabilitation program. After rehabilitation recognition increased by 95% when presented with the famous people's names and related semantic facts, but only by 28% when presented with their faces. Recognition of people by verbal and visual channels improves differently after semantic knowledge rehabilitation.