BODY SNATCHER - A disease that steals the self - Josef Hall

Diane Schaef is in an advanced stage of frontotemporal dementia, commonly known as FTD. It's a degenerative neurological ailment that attacks the brain's frontal and temporal lobes, where personality traits and language control largely reside.

It's a disease, says Dr. Tiffany Chow, that attacks men and women equally and can replace a loved-one with a doppelganger stranger. Unlike Alzheimer's disease – which steals memory yet can leave personality intact for lengthy periods – FTD is a body snatcher.

"So you no longer have a partner helping you run a household and parent children," says Chow, a clinician and scientist with the Baycrest Centre's Rotman Research Institute in Toronto. "You've got another person who is an unknown quantity." [for the rest click on the heading]

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