A Study Of Handwriting Impairments In Patients With Neurodegenerative Conditions

Overview

About this study

The purpose of this study is to describe the differences in writing process and written product of a cohort of 40 patients with atypical AD, 40 with FTLD, and 60 controls.

Participation eligibility

Participant eligibility includes age, gender, type and stage of disease, and previous treatments or health concerns. Guidelines differ from study to study, and identify who can or cannot participate. There is no guarantee that every individual who qualifies and wants to participate in a trial will be enrolled. Contact the study team to discuss study eligibility and potential participation.

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All enrolled participants must be over the age of 18 and be suspected to have one of the diagnoses of interest, as documented by a Mayo Clinic neurologist or speech-language pathologist.

  • They must speak English as their primary language. Bilingual patients whose primary language is English and who self-report writing in English on a regular basis will be included. Language status is not expected to influence motor or visuoperceptual impairments; however, the other known languages will be noted and evaluated post-hoc, if indicated.

Controls:

  • Healthy controls recruited into this study must be between the ages of 45 and 85 and be independently functioning. This age range is narrower than for the patients because this is where we expect the majority of patients to fall and we are aiming to have the two groups be similar in age (e.g., Duffy, Utianski, & Josephs, 2020; Onyike & Diehl-Schmid, 2013).

  • They must not have any active neurologic conditions that are associated with language, cognitive, or motor changes. We will exclude participants who have documented musculoskeletal differences that would affect handwriting (e.g., arthritis or carpal tunnel), those do not speak English as their primary language, as well as those who have persistent childhood speech or language disorders.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants will be excluded if they report a history of other conditions (e.g., traumatic brain injury, strokes) that may influence testing or if they have documented musculoskeletal differences that would affect handwriting (e.g., arthritis or carpal tunnel).

  • If they require an LAR to sign medical documents and the LAR is not available during the visit, then they will also be excluded.

Note: Other protocol defined Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria may apply.

Eligibility last updated 10/10/2025. Questions regarding updates should be directed to the study team contact.

Participating Mayo Clinic locations

Study statuses change often. Please contact the study team for the most up-to-date information regarding possible participation.

Mayo Clinic Location Status Contact

Rochester, Minn.

Mayo Clinic principal investigator

Gabriela Meade

Open for enrollment

Contact information:

Gabriela Meade

(507) 266-0430

meade.gabriela@mayo.edu

More information

Publications

Publications are currently not available