Article
Clinical Neurology
Jeremy C. S. Johnson, Charles R. Marshall, Rimona S. Weil, Doris-Eva Bamiou, Chris J. D. Hardy, Jason D. Warren
Summary: The relationship between hearing impairment and dementia highlights the crucial role of the auditory brain in cognitive function, suggesting potential opportunities for early diagnosis and management strategies. Research emphasizes the importance of auditory cognitive function in neurodegenerative dementias, calling for the development of novel auditory testing methods and early diagnosis strategies.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Jeremy C. S. Johnson, Charles R. Marshall, Rimona S. Weil, Doris-Eva Bamiou, Chris J. D. Hardy, Jason D. Warren
Summary: The association between hearing impairment and dementia poses a significant public health challenge, with potential for earlier diagnosis and prevention. Neurodegenerative pathologies are predicted to target the auditory brain and damage hearing function early. It is important to reconsider the role of auditory cognitive function in dementia and develop new auditory tests for early diagnosis.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Patrick Oeckl, Sarah Anderl-Straub, Christine A. F. Von Arnim, Ines Baldeiras, Janine Diehl-Schmid, Timo Grimmer, Steffen Halbgebauer, Anna M. Kort, Marisa Lima, Taina M. Marques, Marion Ortner, Isabel Santana, Petra Steinacker, Marcel M. Verbeek, Alexander E. Volk, Albert C. Ludolph, Markus Otto
Summary: This study reveals differences in serum levels of GFAP in AD and bvFTD, showing an early increase in MCI-AD and superior diagnostic performance for AD compared to NfL.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Laura Bonanni, Davide Moretti, Alberto Benussi, Laura Ferri, Mirella Russo, Claudia Carrarini, Filomena Barbone, Dario Arnaldi, Nicola Walter Falasca, Giacomo Koch, Annachiara Cagnin, Flavio Nobili, Claudio Babiloni, Barbara Borroni, Alessandro Padovani, Marco Onofrj, Raffaella Franciotti
Summary: The study found significant changes in functional cortical connectivity in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) during the course of the diseases, with hyperconnectivity in the early stages disappearing during follow-up.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Lulu Liu, Daniel Roquet, Rebekah M. Ahmed, John R. Hodges, Olivier Piguet, Muireann Irish
Summary: Deficits in episodic memory are common in dementia, with impairments in future-oriented thinking also observed. This study aimed to determine neurocognitive mechanisms of past- and future-oriented memory performance across a large sample of dementia syndromes. Findings reveal that only Alzheimer's disease and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia show compromised past- and future-oriented memory, with prefrontal regions being implicated as a common neural substrate in both conditions.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Shreyasee Das, Julie Goossens, Dirk Jacobs, Nele Dewit, Yolande A. L. Pijnenburg, Sjors G. J. G. In't Veld, Charlotte E. Teunissen, Eugeen Vanmechelen
Summary: The relationship between fluid biomarkers of neurodegeneration and synaptic dysfunction was studied in patients with AD, FTD, and SCD. The levels of synaptic proteins SNAP25, VAMP2, and Ng were found to be elevated in AD and FTD patients compared to SCD, suggesting that they may not be specific biomarkers for AD. The correlations between synaptic proteins were weaker in AD and FTD groups compared to SCD.
ALZHEIMERS RESEARCH & THERAPY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
M. -Marsel Mesulam, Christina A. Coventry, Eileen H. Bigio, Jaiashre Sridhar, Nathan Gill, Angela J. Fought, Hui Zhang, Cynthia K. Thompson, Changiz Geula, Tamar Gefen, Margaret Flanagan, Qinwen Mao, Sandra Weintraub, Emily J. Rogalski
Summary: Primary progressive aphasia is a neurodegenerative disease that selectively impairs language function. Autopsies and longitudinal studies have shown that primary progressive aphasia has various neuropathological changes, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common. Different variants of primary progressive aphasia have distinct neuropathological correlates, and word comprehension impairments are strong predictors of underlying neuropathology. Different types of primary progressive aphasia have different patterns of cortical atrophy, but all show severe damage to the left hemisphere language network. This study is important for understanding the neuropathological and clinical differences in primary progressive aphasia.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Jonathan Pounders, Emily J. Hill, Destiny Hooper, Xiang Zhang, Jacek Biesiada, Damaris Kuhnell, Hannah L. Greenland, Leyla Esfandiari, Emerlee Timmerman, Forrest Foster, Chenran Wang, Kyle B. Walsh, Rhonna Shatz, Daniel Woo, Mario Medvedovic, Scott Langevin, Russell P. Sawyer
Summary: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a significant role in regulating gene expression. This study found differences in neuronal extracellular vesicle (SEV) miRNA expression between frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and healthy aging. SEV miRNA-181c was downregulated in FTD, while miRNA-122 and miRNA-3591 were downregulated in AD compared to healthy controls and FTD. Only miRNA-21-5p showed increased expression in cerebrospinal fluid compared to plasma. SEV miRNA-181c may mediate its effects through microglial-directed neuroinflammation and interaction with TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43). The FOXO and Hippo pathways may also be important for FTD. Plasma is a suitable biofluid for studying neuronal SEV miRNA.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Ellen H. Singleton, Jay L. P. Fieldhouse, Jochum J. van 't Hooft, Marta Scarioni, Marie-Paule E. van Engelen, Sietske A. M. Sikkes, Casper de Boer, Diana Bocancea, Esther van den Berg, Philip Scheltens, Wiesje M. van der Flier, Janne M. Papma, Yolande A. L. Pijnenburg, Rik Ossenkoppele
Summary: The study examines the social cognition impairments in patients with behavioural variant of Alzheimer's disease (bvAD) and compares them with patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and typical Alzheimer's disease. The findings suggest that patients with bvAD exhibit similar but milder social cognition impairments compared to bvFTD, and greater impairments compared to typical Alzheimer's disease.
Article
Clinical Neurology
Leonidas Chouliaras, Alan Thomas, Maura Malpetti, Paul Donaghy, Joseph Kane, Elijah Mak, George Savulich, Maria A. Prats-Sedano, Amanda J. Heslegrave, Henrik Zetterberg, Li Su, James Benedict Rowe, John Tiernan O'Brien
Summary: This study compared plasma biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases in different patient groups and found that p-tau181 was elevated in MCI+AD patients with high accuracy in differentiating between different types of dementia. NfL was elevated in all dementia groups, while GFAP was elevated in MCI+AD and LBD.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Sally Day, Stefanie Roberts, Nathalie H. Launder, Anita M. Y. Goh, Brian Draper, Alex Bahar-Fuchs, Samantha M. Loi, Kate Laver, Adrienne Withall, Monica Cations
Summary: Younger people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have a worse prognosis in terms of faster cognitive decline compared to older individuals. More research is needed to determine the impact of symptom onset age in vascular dementia (VaD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), as well as functional decline in all types of dementias.
JOURNAL OF ALZHEIMERS DISEASE
(2022)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Yisen Shi, Fabin Lin, Yueping Li, Yingqing Wang, Xiaochun Chen, Fangang Meng, Qinyong Ye, Guoen Cai
Summary: Recent evidence suggests an association between pro-inflammatory diets and cognitive function, but few studies have explored this using the dietary inflammatory index (DII) and its relationship with different subtypes of dementia. This study analyzed data from UK Biobank participants without dementia and found that higher DII was associated with a higher risk of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's dementia. However, the association with vascular and frontotemporal dementia was not significant.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lourdes Alvarez-Sanchez, Carmen Pena-Bautista, Laura Ferre-Gonzalez, Laura Cubas, Angel Balaguer, Bonaventura Casanova-Estruch, Miguel Baquero, Consuelo Chafer-Pericas
Summary: This study aims to evaluate the use of several plasma biomarkers to develop an early and specific screening method for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The results show that plasma p-Tau181 and GFAP levels are higher in AD dementia patients and have significant correlations with clinical AD characteristics. Plasma NfL levels are higher in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients but not significantly correlated with AD. The developed partial least squares (PLS) diagnosis model shows good accuracy in distinguishing AD patients from subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) patients.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Lourdes Alvarez-Sanchez, Carmen Pena-Bautista, Laura Ferre-Gonzalez, Angel Balaguer, Miguel Baquero, Bonaventura Casanova-Estruch, Consuelo Chafer-Pericas
Summary: This study analyzed plasma biomarkers (Amyloid beta 42, p-Tau181, t-Tau, neurofilament light (NfL), TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43)) in AD and FTLD patients using single molecule array technology (SIMOA((R))). Plasma p-Tau181 correlated with CSF levels and showed good accuracy in distinguishing controls from AD, as well as discriminating AD from FTLD. Plasma NfL could discriminate dementia-AD vs. controls, FTLD vs. controls, and MCI-AD vs. dementia-AD. These biomarkers in plasma may be helpful for AD diagnosis and differentiating from FTLD, and potentially useful for future AD screening protocols.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Xuewen Xiao, Zhenhua Yuan, Lina Guo, Xinxin Liao, Yafang Zhou, Weiwei Zhang, Lu Zhou, Xin Wang, Xixi Liu, Hui Liu, Junling Wang, Jinchen Li, Lu Shen, Bin Jiao
Summary: Our study found that UBQLN1, MAPT, and HNRNPA1 are implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease in the mainland Chinese population, suggesting their potential role in AD risk.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
(2021)
Article
Geriatrics & Gerontology
Alinka C. Fisher, Sau C. Cheung, Claire M. C. O'Connor, Olivier Piguet
Summary: This pilot study investigated the acceptability and usefulness of a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) education program for family carers of individuals with behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The results indicate that the program was helpful in improving the carers' capability in providing behaviour support, with positive changes observed in their approach.
JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Review
Psychology, Clinical
Jan Van den Stock, Maxime Bertoux, Janine Diehl-Schmid, Olivier Piguet, Katherine P. Rankin, Florence Pasquier, Simon Ducharme, Yolande Pijnenburg, Fiona Kumfor
Summary: Dodich et al. reviewed the clinical use of social cognition assessment in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and proposed an initiative to address the limitations in their study.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Psychology
Marianne Jarsch, Olivier Piguet, Manfred Berres, Constantin Sluka, Anna Semenkova, Reto W. Kressig, Andreas U. Monsch, Skye McDonald, Marc Sollberger
Summary: This study aimed to develop the first German-language adaptation of TASIT-SIM, an ecologically valid test for assessing Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in healthy adults. Thirteen scenes were selected and filmed at different intensities to determine the best materials for the test. Through Rasch analysis, intensity versions were chosen that showed optimal performance in participants with medium ToM abilities. In conclusion, the Basel Version of the Awareness of Social Inference Test - Theory of Mind (BASIT-ToM) was developed, incorporating the strengths of TASIT-SIM and addressing its limitations. Further validation of BASIT-ToM is needed in both healthy and clinical populations.
JOURNAL OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Stephanie Wong, Grace Wei, Masud Husain, John R. Hodges, Olivier Piguet, Muireann Irish, Fiona Kumfor
Summary: This study found a significant link between impaired social reward learning and emotional apathy in dementia, suggesting a shared neurobiological basis between the two. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms of reward processing can help improve the identification and treatment of emotional apathy in dementia.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Gillian Coughlan, William Plumb, Peter Zhukovsky, Min Hane Aung, Michael Hornberger
Summary: Studies have shown that changes in spatial cells and vestibular features can accurately classify carriers of Alzheimer's disease risk using machine learning models.
Article
Neuroimaging
Nga Yan Tse, Martina Bocchetta, Emily G. Todd, Emma M. Devenney, Sicong Tu, Jashelle Caga, John R. Hodges, Glenda M. Halliday, Muireann Irish, Matthew C. Kiernan, Olivier Piguet, Jonathan D. Rohrer, Rebekah M. Ahmed
Summary: Through studying a large sample of 211 participants, it was found that different subregions of the hypothalamus are correlated with cognitive and behavioral impairments. Patients with ALS, mixed ALS-FTD, and bvFTD all showed hypothalamic involvement. Cognitive and behavioral symptoms were correlated with bilateral involvement of the anterior inferior, anterior superior, and posterior hypothalamic subregions. The anterior superior and superior tuberal subregions displayed the greatest volume loss in bvFTD and ALS-FTD, and ALS, respectively, and were associated with specific neuropeptide expression abnormalities.
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Jessica L. Hazelton, Sol Fittipaldi, Matias Fraile-Vazquez, Marion Sourty, Agustina Legaz, Anna L. Hudson, Indira Garcia Cordero, Paula C. Salamone, Adrian Yoris, Agustin Ibanez, Olivier Piguet, Fiona Kumfor
Summary: This study investigates the disease-specific mechanisms underlying emotion recognition difficulties in bvFTD, AD, and PD patients. The findings suggest that interoceptive accuracy and cognitive abilities may contribute to emotion recognition impairments. In particular, bvFTD patients show worse interoceptive accuracy, while AD and PD patients show worse cognition.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
V. Lenglin, S. Wong, C. O'Callaghan, S. Erzinclioglu, M. Hornberger, T. Lebouvier, O. Piguet, S. Bourgeois-Gironde, M. Bertoux
Summary: Recent evidence from psycho-economics shows that the zero-price effect (ZPE) leads to an increase in subjective utility when the price of an item decreases to zero. This effect is attributed to an affective heuristic where the free status of an item biases choice towards that item. The study explored the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in the ZPE and found that patients with vmPFC lesion or behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia showed reduced zero-related changes of preference for gift-cards but not for food items, suggesting altered affective evaluations in these patients.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Kimberly Gressie, Fiona Kumfor, Her Teng, David Foxe, Emma Devenney, Rebekah M. Ahmed, Olivier Piguet
Summary: The study aims to compare the patterns of errors in facial emotion recognition in frontotemporal dementia (FTD) subtypes with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy controls. The results show that all clinical groups perform worse than controls, with bvFTD and SD-right being particularly impaired. The patterns of errors are similar across all clinical groups.
INTERNATIONAL PSYCHOGERIATRICS
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Anna Semenkova, Olivier Piguet, Andreas Johnen, Matthias L. Schroeter, Jannis Godulla, Christoph Linnemann, Markus Muhlhauser, Thomas Sauer, Markus Baumgartner, Sarah Anderl-Straub, Markus Otto, Ansgar Felbecker, Reto W. Kressig, Manfred Berres, Marc Sollberger
Summary: Based on the revised diagnostic criteria, the Behavioural Dysfunction Questionnaire (BDQ) was developed to discriminate between behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and non-bvFTD patients. BDQ-scores without any time criterion were found highly discriminatory between early-stage bvFTD and non-bvFTD groups, suggesting its potential for improving early diagnosis of bvFTD.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
A. Skeggs, G. Wei, R. Landin-Romero, J. R. Hodges, O. Piguet, Fiona Kumfor
Summary: This study aims to characterise the clinical profiles of patients with behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) from culturally diverse backgrounds. The results showed differences in clinical features, cognitive test performance, and cognitive reserve among patients from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The study also found that higher cognitive reserve is associated with lower neural integrity in frontal-temporal regions.
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Hiu Chuen Lok, Jared S. Katzeff, John R. Hodges, Olivier Piguet, YuHong Fu, Glenda M. Halliday, Woojin Scott Kim
Summary: Neuroinflammation is a key feature of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), characterized by the degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes. This study examined 48 cytokines in FTD serum and brain tissues to identify common dysregulation pathways. The results suggest the potential importance of the NLRP3 inflammasome in FTD.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Clinical Neurology
Kristina Horne, Muireann Irish
BRAIN COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Review
Gerontology
Amy L. Jarvis, Stephanie Wong, Michael Weightman, Erica S. Ghezzi, Rhianna L. S. Sharman, Hannah A. D. Keage
Summary: Emotional empathy may increase across adulthood, according to a meta-analysis of existing data. The study clarified mixed findings regarding the functioning of emotional empathy in later life and highlighted the potential influence of emotional empathy measures. Further research is recommended to include diverse samples and longitudinal designs.
PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Kristina Horne, Rebekah M. Ahmed, Olivier Piguet, Muireann Irish
Summary: This study demonstrates the link between motivational changes and behavioral rigidity in frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The researchers found that FTD patients with severe behavioral rigidity also had a lack of motivation and decreased hedonic tone. By identifying candidate mechanisms of behavioral rigidity, these findings can inform targeted interventions to manage inflexible patterns of thought and behavior in daily life.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Andrea Gajardo-Vidal, Maxime Montembeault, Diego L. Lorca-Puls, Abigail E. Licata, Rian Bogley, Sabrina Erlhoff, Buddhika Ratnasiri, Zoe Ezzes, Giovanni Battistella, Elena Tsoy, Christa Watson Pereira, Jessica Deleon, Boon Lead Tee, Maya L. Henry, Zachary A. Miller, Katherine P. Rankin, Maria Luisa Mandelli, Katherine L. Possin, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini
Summary: This study investigates the potential differences in processing speed and neural correlates among the three variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The findings reveal that non-verbal cognitive abilities, such as processing speed, are significantly impacted in nfvPPA and lvPPA patients compared to healthy controls and svPPA patients. Neuroimaging results confirm the importance of fronto-parietal regions associated with processing speed and executive control.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Holger Wiese, Tsvetomila Popova, Maya Schipper, Deni Zakriev, Mike Burton, Andrew W. Young
Summary: Previous experiments have shown that brief exposure to unfamiliar individuals leads to the formation of new facial representations, which undergo changes and consolidation within the first day after learning.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Astrid Prochnow, Xianzhen Zhou, Foroogh Ghorbani, Paul Wendiggensen, Veit Roessner, Bernhard Hommel, Christian Beste
Summary: Individuals organize events in their environment by partitioning them into discrete units. This study reveals that the neural activity in the brain plays a critical role in this process, reflecting the key elements of event segmentation.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Zhenzhen Huo, Zhiyi Chen, Rong Zhang, Junye Xu, Tingyong Feng
Summary: Procrastination has adverse effects on personal growth and social development. Reward sensitivity is positively correlated with procrastination. This study used VBM and RSFC analyses to investigate the neural substrates underlying the association between reward sensitivity and procrastination. The results showed that the functional connectivity of the right parahippocampal gyrus-precuneus mediated the relationship between reward sensitivity and procrastination.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Stefano Lasaponara, Gabriele Scozia, Silvana Lozito, Mario Pinto, David Conversi, Marco Costanzi, Tim Vriens, Massimo Silvetti, Fabrizio Doricchi
Summary: Cholinergic (Ach), Noradrenergic (NE), and Dopaminergic (DA) pathways are crucial in regulating spatial attention and determining inter-individual differences in temperamental traits. This study found that temperamental traits predict individual differences in the ability to orient spatial attention based on the probabilistic association between cues and targets. These findings highlight the importance of considering temperamental and personality traits in social and professional environments where attention control is essential.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Darren J. Yeo, Courtney Pollack, Benjamin N. Conrad, Gavin R. Price
Summary: The processing of numerals as visual objects is supported by an Inferior Temporal Numeral Area (ITNA) in the bilateral inferior temporal gyri (ITG). Extant findings suggest some degree of hemispheric asymmetry in how the bilateral ITNAs process numerals. The study found that digit sensitivity did not differ between ITNAs, and digit sensitivity in both left and right ITNAs was associated with calculation skills. The study also revealed a right lateralization in engagement in alphanumeric categorization, and that the right ITNA showed greater discriminability between digits and letters.
Review
Behavioral Sciences
Beste Gulsuna, Abuzer Gungor, Alp O. Borcer, Ugur Ture
Summary: The fiber dissection technique has been used to study the internal structures of the brain, with less focus on white matter. The sagittal stratum, a white matter structure, has not received enough attention and has been a subject of controversy. Recent studies suggest potential functions of the sagittal stratum, emphasizing the importance of understanding this structure accurately.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nora Geiser, Brigitte Charlotte Kaufmann, Samuel Elia Johannes Knobel, Dario Cazzoli, Tobias Nef, Thomas Nyffeler
Summary: This study compared the effects of auditory and visual motion stimulation on spatial neglect and found that both interventions were equally effective in improving neglect. Multimodal motion stimulation also improved neglect, but did not show greater improvement than unimodal auditory or visual motion stimulation alone.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Anna E. Hughes, Anna Nowakowska, Alasdair D. F. Clarke
Summary: This study examines the relationship between search slopes and search efficiency in visual search tasks, introduces the Target Contrast Signal (TCS) Theory, and extends it to a Bayesian multi-level framework. The findings demonstrate that TCS can predict data well, but distinguishing between contrast combination models proves to be difficult.
