title: Prosopagnosia as unusual presentation of semantic dementia: a case study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Semantic dementia is one of the main clinical variants of frontotemporal dementia and it is characterized by severe loss of conceptual knowledge with relative preservation of other cortical abilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  We described a case of a patient affected by right temporal variant of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, characterized by prosopagnosia as an unusual disease onset.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The neuropsychological evaluation showed a progressive deficit in face recognition and a slow decline in language in the absence of behavioral alterations. Magnetic resonance imaging showed diffuse vascular ischemic lesions, cortical atrophy in bilateral temporal lobes, and a marked bilateral decrease hippocampal volume, mainly involving the right side.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that prosopagnosia could be a predictive marker of atypical semantic dementia onset.
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Viviana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lo Buono
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corallo
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marra
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Rocco Salvatore
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Calabrò
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Placido
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bramanti
authors.affiliation: a IRCCS Centro Neurolesi "Bonino Pulejo" , Messina , Italy.|b Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging , University of Messina , Messina , Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marino
keywords: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration; Hippocampus atrophy; Prosopagnosia; Semantic dementia