Cited by 94Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAdvanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsHistorical and Modern Theater Studies

White matter tract signatures of impaired social cognition in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

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Downey, Laura E., Mahoney, Colin J., Buckley, Aisling H., Golden, Hannah L., Henley, Susie M., Schmitz, Nicole, Schott, Jonathan M., Simpson, Ivor J. +4 more·2015·NeuroImage: Clinical

Abstract

Impairments of social cognition are often leading features in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and likely to reflect large-scale brain network disintegration. However, the neuroanatomical basis of impaired social cognition in FTLD and the role of white matter connections have not been defined. Here we assessed social cognition in a cohort of patients representing two core syndromes of FTLD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 29) and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA; n = 15), relative to healthy older individuals (n = 37) using two components of the Awareness of Social Inference Test, canonical emotion identification and sarcasm identification. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to derive white matter tract correlates of social cognition performance and compared with the distribution of grey matter atrophy on voxel-based morphometry. The bvFTD and svPPA groups showed comparably severe deficits for identification of canonical emotions and sarcasm, and these deficits were correlated with distributed and overlapping white matter tract alterations particularly affecting frontotemporal connections in the right cerebral hemisphere. The most robust DTI associations were identified in white matter tracts linking cognitive and evaluative processing with emotional responses: anterior thalamic radiation, fornix (emotion identification) and uncinate fasciculus (sarcasm identification). DTI associations of impaired social cognition were more consistent than corresponding grey matter associations. These findings delineate a brain network substrate for the social impairment that characterises FTLD syndromes. The findings further suggest that DTI can generate sensitive and functionally relevant indexes of white matter damage in FTLD, with potential to transcend conventional syndrome boundaries.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.nicl.2015.06.005

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Authors
Downey, L. E., Mahoney, C. J., Buckley, A. H., Golden, H. L., Henley, S. M., Schmitz, N., Schott, J. M., Simpson, I. J., Ourselin, S., Fox, N. C., Crutch, S. J., & Warren, J. D.
Affiliations
UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
Corresponding author
Warren, Jason D.
Venue
NeuroImage: Clinical
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015
Volume
8
Pages
640-651
ISSN
2213-1582 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W835185512
Cited by
94
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 1
FWCI
10.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • NeuroImage Clinical (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • UK Medical Research Council (G0801306)
  • NIHR Queen Square Dementia Biomedical Research Unit (CBRC 161)
  • Medical Research Council
  • Alzheimer Research UK (ART-PhD2011-10)
  • Wellcome Trust (091673/Z/10/Z)
  • ESRC/NIHR (ES/K006711/1)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical and Modern Theater Studies
Keywords
frontotemporal lobar degeneration, social cognition, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia, white matter tracts, diffusion tensor imaging, emotion recognition, anterior thalamic radiation, fornix, uncinate fasciculus, gray matter atrophy, right hemisphere
MeSH terms
Aged, Atrophy, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Social Perception, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia, Frontotemporal Dementia, White Matter, Gray Matter

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