Emotional reactivity and emotion recognition in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Werner, Kelly; Roberts, Nicole A.; Rosen, Howard J.; Dean, David L.; Kramer, Joel H.; Weiner, Michael W.; Miller, Bruce L.; Levenson, Robert W.

doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000265589.32060.d3

Cited by 125 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In terms of emotional responses, participants displayed some emotions when describing events that directly appertained to them, but not in relation to their interactions with others. These subjective experiences are consistent with the findings that people with bvFTD, rather than showing a global impairment in the expression of emotion, are able to express simple emotions such as happiness, sadness and fear (Levenson & Miller, 2007;Werner et al, 2007) shown to be mediated by a neural circuit including the frontal lobes. In a similar vein, people with bvFTD have been found to have an impaired ability to recognise emotions, particularly negative emotions in others (Rankin et al, 2006;Werner et al, 2007) which might be reflecting in some participants' experiences of feeling that they might be doing something wrong but without being able to work out what this might be.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Living with a diagnosis of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: The person’s experience

2016

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Living with a diagnosis of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: The person’s experience

2016

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“…Previous bvFTD studies have emphasized the role of right hemisphere degeneration in producing the characteristic clinical features of loss of empathy (65), social disinhibition (66), and overeating (67), perhaps by undermining negative emotions such as embarrassment (68) and visceral feelings such as satiety (67). Simple positive emotions are often preserved, at least at the group level, in heterogeneous bvFTD samples (27,69). Our study provides the more nuanced view that relative injury to the dominant hemisphere autonomic control structures produces a clinical picture that includes reduced parasympathetic outflow and a more irritable, irascible (i.e., less agreeable) patient.…”

Section: Localization and Lateralization Of Cortical Cardiac Parasympmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1073/pnas.1509184113/-/DCSupplemental. of social-emotional functions and diminished phasic autonomic responses during social-emotional tasks (26,27). Anatomically, bvFTD involves degeneration of core salience network structures proposed to support autonomic regulation, including the ACC and anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), FI, and subcortical, limbic, and brainstem sites (28,29).…”

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confidence: 99%

Dominant hemisphere lateralization of cortical parasympathetic control as revealed by frontotemporal dementia

Guo

Sturm

Zhou

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

111

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The brain continuously influences and perceives the physiological condition of the body. Related cortical representations have been proposed to shape emotional experience and guide behavior. Although previous studies have identified brain regions recruited during autonomic processing, neurological lesion studies have yet to delineate the regions critical for maintaining autonomic outflow. Even greater controversy surrounds hemispheric lateralization along the parasympathetic–sympathetic axis. The behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), featuring progressive and often asymmetric degeneration that includes the frontoinsular and cingulate cortices, provides a unique lesion model for elucidating brain structures that control autonomic tone. Here, we show that bvFTD is associated with reduced baseline cardiac vagal tone and that this reduction correlates with left-lateralized functional and structural frontoinsular and cingulate cortex deficits and with reduced agreeableness. Our results suggest that networked brain regions in the dominant hemisphere are critical for maintaining an adaptive level of baseline parasympathetic outflow.

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“…A significant role for the right amygdala in recognition of negative facial affect has also been reported (Rosen, PaceSavitsky et al, 2004). Werner et al (2007) examined two aspects of emotional processing (emotional reactivity and emotion recognition) in FTLD subjects using measures of selfreported emotional experience, emotional facial behavior, autonomic nervous system response to film stimuli, ability to identify a target emotion of fear, happy, or sad experienced by film characters. FTLD patients were significantly impaired compared with controls in emotion recognition for the fear and sad film clips.…”

Section: Contributions To Cognitive Neurosciencementioning

confidence: 99%

The Early Neuropsychological and Behavioral Characteristics of Frontotemporal Dementia

et al. 2008

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Frontotemporal lobe dementias (FTLD) represent a constellation of disorders that may be overlooked or misdiagnosed, despite being a fairly common presenile neurodegenerative diseases. Although the cognitive disorder can be difficult to document, particularly early in the dementia course, neuropsychological evaluation can assist in the diagnosis. Neuropsychologists are in an excellent position to draw from related disciplines like personality theory and social psychology to better assess the types of changes that characterize the prodromal and early phases of the disease. This review summarizes the current state of the field in the diagnosis of FTLD and discusses the emerging role of neuropsychology in elucidating the brain organization of complex processes including empathy, behavioral control and inhibition, reward systems, appetitive behaviors, emotional regulation, and goal-orientation. As this review underscores, FTD remains a powerful model for studying brain-behavior relationships.Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) refers to a set of neurodegenerative disorders arising from relatively circumscribed frontal and temporal lobar atrophy. Characterized by troubling and progressive changes in behavior, personality, judgment, language, and cognition, the disorder compromises individuals while still in their productive years and may initially be mistaken as a psychiatric disorder. As with other degenerative dementias, a goal is to identify these disorders early with the intent of intervening before the disease has fully expressed in brain. Although no pharmacological treatments are yet available to prevent the disease progression, there are treatments that help alleviate symptoms and nonpharmacological interventions to deal with problem behaviors, coping, and adjustment. From a cognitive neuroscience perspective, the FTLD dementias with their effects on some of the core features of human personality and cognition offer an opportunity to better understand how these fundamental processes of human existence are functionally organized, both the processes involved as well as the brain systems that mediate them. This review article discusses the clinical presentation of the FTLD dementias with an emphasis on its early expression. We propose that by applying a theoretical framework of human behavior from social psychology and constructs from personality theory to the study of FTLD, neuropsychology is ideally positioned to elucidate some of the brain mechanisms underlying a range of complex human behaviors, emotions, and social cognition. Clinical and Neuropathological Expression of FTLDThe first mention of FTLD as a syndrome was in 1892 when Arnold Pick, a neurologist at the University of Prague, described the clinical and pathological features of one of his patients. He reported an aphasic presentation that progressed over three years in a 71-yearold individual. Upon autopsy, there was found to be significant frontal and temporal lobe atrophy in the diseased brain. Pick's clinical description of his patien...

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Emotional reactivity and emotion recognition in frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Abstract: The socioemotional decline typically seen in frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients may result more from an inability to process certain emotions in other people than from deficits in emotional reactivity.

Cited by 125 publications

References 34 publications

Living with a diagnosis of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: The person’s experience

Living with a diagnosis of behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: The person’s experience

Dominant hemisphere lateralization of cortical parasympathetic control as revealed by frontotemporal dementia

The Early Neuropsychological and Behavioral Characteristics of Frontotemporal Dementia

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