A 73-year-old Brazilian, right-handed man, retired business manager, began having progressively cognitive and behavioral disorders for the past 5 years. His family noticed some behavioral changes, as he presented with great irritability, usage of bad language, profound inhibition, apathy, and unprecedented religious interests (hyper-religiosity). He had no history of hallucinations. During the consultation, the patient recurrently said in a delirious speech that he was a “disgrace,” that he was disturbing his wife and family, and it would be a relief if he died. His conversation was predominantly melancholic and mostly about self-centered themes.

A 69-year old, left-handed man presented at initial consultation with a history of difficulty with short-term recall for 18 months. There were neither obvious behavioral changes nor changes in long-term memory. He also denied any difficulty with lexical retrieval. There was no difficulty in comprehension and no topographic disorientation. He would occasionally feel down, but it seemed to be appropriate to the situation with no sustained depression. On collateral history from his wife, she noted that the cognitive symptoms began about 3 years prior. This was described as gradually progressive memory loss initially having difficulty in recalling recent events, and then subsequently needing written cues or reminders for appointments. An example of this was he could not recall who they had dinner with from several nights prior. Another would be he would tend to forget that they had just eaten recently and could not recall what they ate.

The patient is a 58-year-old-right-handed man, with 11 years of schooling. A retired bank manager, he presented in May 2011 with a 3-year history of progressive word-finding difficulties and phonological errors in spontaneous speech.

A 54-year-old right-handed highly educated French-speaking father of three was referred for a neurological consultation for “some memory difficulties and behavioral changes” for the past 2 years. His past medical history was unremarkable and no learning disabilities were reported. He denied alcohol and drug abuse and he did not smoke. His father and two of his paternal aunts had been diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He was concerned by the possibility of being affected by the same neurodegenerative condition.

A 29-year-old woman was referred to a community hospital. She was accompanied by her parents. They reported that behavioral and personality changes had been present for 3 days. The patient suddenly had started to speak almost incomprehensibly. She also had become obtrusive and impulsive. In addition, she had talked to imaginary people and introduced herself as another person. The physicians at the hospital described her as an aggressive person with incoherent thinking, pathological crying, and hallucinations. No focal neurological signs were observed. With suspected schizophrenic psychosis, the patient was transferred to a psychiatric department.

A 65-year-old accountant presented to the consultation to investigate whether her memory lapses are the first manifestations of Fahr’s disease. She noticed, during the last few years, a progressive difficulty in accomplishing her tasks at work. She felt tired and described that it takes her more time to prepare her reports as compared to a few years ago. She needs to read her drafts several times in order to ensure her work is complete and accurate. She also described more dependence on her personal notes to remember her tasks such as lists for shopping. During meetings and conversations at work, she described difficulties recalling people’s names. She has started to search for words during conversations. Although inconvenient, the impact of these difficulties on her work remains minimal, and she continues to take good care of her home affairs. Her husband denies that the patient is underperforming at home. She described no difficulties completing her domestic, financial, and personal obligations.

A 66-year-old right-handed man presented to the memory clinic with a complaint of decreased concentration.

Mrs. A is a 30-year-old female who presented to the emergency department of a major urban hospital in Canada with complaints of abdominal pain, fatigue, and tremor. Her first language is Arabic and history taking was complicated by Mrs. A’s very limited English. She had arrived in Canada only a few days before presentation. Before coming to Canada, Mrs. A lived for approximately 2 years in a refugee camp and had very limited access to medical care during that time.

This is about a 56-year-old man who presented to the neurology clinic because of reading difficulty.

An 85-year-old woman with hypertension and hyperlipidemia presented with gradual and progressive cognitive impairment for more than 2 years, involving cognitive domains of memory, executive function, visuospatial and mood. She has short-term memory loss such as forgetting whether she has eaten or showered. She will also ask the same questions repeatedly. However, her long-term memory remains intact. She has forgotten how to cook and has recently burnt the pot while cooking on the stove. She is also unable to manage finances and often gives the wrong change while buying her usual groceries. She has lost her way a few times in places where she is familiar with. In addition, she started having mood swings, low mood, and poor sleep. Physical examination reveals mild bilateral bradykinesia, absence of postural or rest tremors, normal limb power, tone and tendon reflexes. She has lower limb apraxia and mild postural instability. Her Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was 16. While she scored 0 for delayed recall, she was able to recall all 3 objects with either category or lexical cueing.

A 62-year-old right-handed lady presented at initial consultation with an 18 months history of slowly progressive short-term memory problems and personality change. She denied having any problems herself, suggesting some lack of insight. However, the collateral history obtained from her daughter made it clear that she had problems with progressive worsening of her short-term memory in the past 18 months, severe enough to be of concern in the last year. She reported that she had a poor episodic memory for conversations and recent events. As an example, her daughter gave examples that the patient was frequently unable to remember previous conversations. Also, she mentioned that she was prone to forget the discussed topic in the middle of conversations.

EEP is a Brazilian, 68-year-old, right-handed man, with 15 years of schooling (graduated in business school). He is married and has a daughter and a son.

JX is a 60-year-old man who presented to his general practitioner in mid-June of 2015 complaining that he was finding his spreadsheets at work harder to manage. He had taken a month of leave to seek medical attention. He had no difficulties describing the content of the spreadsheets to his colleagues, but found he had to zoom in on the specific pieces of data to be able to see them. He noted if he intently stared at the screen things would move around or change. He initially saw an opthalmologist, and there were no issues with his fields or acuity. He stated straight lines appeared crooked or had “knuckles” on them.

A 65-year-old retired nurse with problems in following and remembering conversation.

ALLG is a 57-year-old married woman, with 15 years of schooling (graduated in pedagogy).

A 32-year-old right-handed woman developed persistent fever with malaise and nausea. The symptoms persisted for 2 weeks, after which she was admitted because of delirium, amnesia, and repetitive generalized convulsions with loss of consciousness. She had no remarkable past and family medical history, which included a history of abortions and thyroiditis. However, she had gained a body weight of 20 kg in the 1 year preceding this episode. She was not on medication and did not smoke or consume alcohol.