Development, Validation and Normative Data of the Italian Battery for the Recognition of Famous Faces (FAME)

The I-FACE project aims to develop and validate a battery to assess famous-face recognition in people with neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. It will examine face naming, familiarity, and semantic knowledge, establish norms for the Italian population, and test how well the measures identify recognition difficulties in patients with frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and stroke.

1. Healthy Controls (HC) Inclusion Criteria: Age 40-85 years. No chronic medical, neurological, or psychiatric conditions, or major depressive episode detected during screening. No history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in the 5 years prior to screening. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≥ 26. Exclusion Criteria: Uncorrected vision or hearing impairment. 2. Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) Patients Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis of probable FTD according to established clinical criteria. Age 40-85 years. Ability to provide informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: History of neurological diseases other than FTD (e.g., stroke, brain tumor, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury). Uncorrected vision or hearing impairment. History of serious psychiatric diseases, developmental disorders (e.g., autism spectrum), or intellectual disability. Dementia severity (CDR) \> 1. 3. Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Patients Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis of probable AD according to established clinical criteria. Age 40-85 years. Ability to provide informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: History of neurological diseases other than AD (e.g., stroke, brain tumor, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury). Uncorrected vision or hearing impairment. History of serious psychiatric diseases, developmental disorders, or intellectual disability. Dementia severity (CDR) \> 1. 4. Post-Stroke Patients Inclusion Criteria: Subacute phase: 1 week to 3 months post-event. Ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke confirmed by neuroimaging and/or clinical judgment. Exclusion Criteria: History of previous stroke or multifocal stroke documented by imaging. Brainstem or cerebellar stroke. History of traumatic brain injury (TBI), seizures, brain tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, or psychiatric disorders.