Conceptual apraxia in probable Alzheimer's disease as demonstrated by the Florida Action Recall Test

Patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) often have difficulties ass ociated with semantic knowledge. Therefore, conceptual apraxia, a defect of action semantics and mechanical knowledge, may be an early sign of this di sease. The Florida Action Recall Test (FLART), developed to assess conceptu al apraxia, consists of 45 line drawings of objects or scenes. The subject must imagine the proper tool to apply to each pictured object or scene and then pantomime its use. Twelve participants with Alzheimer's disease (NINCD S-ADRDA criteria) and 21 age and education-matched controls were tested. Ni ne Alzheimer's disease participants scored below a 2-standard-deviation cut off on conceptual accuracy, and the three who scored above the cutoff were beyond a 2-standard-deviation cutoff on completion time. The FLART appears to be a sensitive measure of conceptual apraxia in the early stages of Alzh eimer's disease.