scholarly journals The functional neuroanatomy of emotion processing in frontotemporal dementias

Brain ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (9) ◽  
pp. 2873-2887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles R Marshall ◽  
Christopher J D Hardy ◽  
Lucy L Russell ◽  
Rebecca L Bond ◽  
Harri Sivasathiaseelan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Functional Mri ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Semantic Variant

Abstract Impaired processing of emotional signals is a core feature of frontotemporal dementia syndromes, but the underlying neural mechanisms have proved challenging to characterize and measure. Progress in this field may depend on detecting functional changes in the working brain, and disentangling components of emotion processing that include sensory decoding, emotion categorization and emotional contagion. We addressed this using functional MRI of naturalistic, dynamic facial emotion processing with concurrent indices of autonomic arousal, in a cohort of patients representing all major frontotemporal dementia syndromes relative to healthy age-matched individuals. Seventeen patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia [four female; mean (standard deviation) age 64.8 (6.8) years], 12 with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia [four female; 66.9 (7.0) years], nine with non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia [five female; 67.4 (8.1) years] and 22 healthy controls [12 female; 68.6 (6.8) years] passively viewed videos of universal facial expressions during functional MRI acquisition, with simultaneous heart rate and pupillometric recordings; emotion identification accuracy was assessed in a post-scan behavioural task. Relative to healthy controls, patient groups showed significant impairments (analysis of variance models, all P < 0.05) of facial emotion identification (all syndromes) and cardiac (all syndromes) and pupillary (non-fluent variant only) reactivity. Group-level functional neuroanatomical changes were assessed using statistical parametric mapping, thresholded at P < 0.05 after correction for multiple comparisons over the whole brain or within pre-specified regions of interest. In response to viewing facial expressions, all participant groups showed comparable activation of primary visual cortex while patient groups showed differential hypo-activation of fusiform and posterior temporo-occipital junctional cortices. Bi-hemispheric, syndrome-specific activations predicting facial emotion identification performance were identified (behavioural variant, anterior insula and caudate; semantic variant, anterior temporal cortex; non-fluent variant, frontal operculum). The semantic and non-fluent variant groups additionally showed complex profiles of central parasympathetic and sympathetic autonomic involvement that overlapped signatures of emotional visual and categorization processing and extended (in the non-fluent group) to brainstem effector pathways. These findings open a window on the functional cerebral mechanisms underpinning complex socio-emotional phenotypes of frontotemporal dementia, with implications for novel physiological biomarker development.

scholarly journals Effects of early institutionalization on emotion processing in 12-year-old youth

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1749-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Bick ◽  
Rhiannon Luyster ◽  
Nathan A. Fox ◽  
Charles H. Zeanah ◽  
Charles A. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Fearful Faces

AbstractWe examined facial emotion recognition in 12-year-olds in a longitudinally followed sample of children with and without exposure to early life psychosocial deprivation (institutional care). Half of the institutionally reared children were randomized into foster care homes during the first years of life. Facial emotion recognition was examined in a behavioral task using morphed images. This same task had been administered when children were 8 years old. Neutral facial expressions were morphed with happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotional facial expressions, and children were asked to identify the emotion of each face, which varied in intensity. Consistent with our previous report, we show that some areas of emotion processing, involving the recognition of happy and fearful faces, are affected by early deprivation, whereas other areas, involving the recognition of sad and angry faces, appear to be unaffected. We also show that early intervention can have a lasting positive impact, normalizing developmental trajectories of processing negative emotions (fear) into the late childhood/preadolescent period.

scholarly journals Degenerative Jargon Aphasia: Unusual Progression of Logopenic/Phonological Progressive Aphasia?

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Caffarra ◽  
Simona Gardini ◽  
Stefano Cappa ◽  
Francesca Dieci ◽  
Letizia Concari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Middle Temporal ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Executive Deficits ◽  
Semantic Variant

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) corresponds to the gradual degeneration of language which can occur as nonfluent/agrammatic PPA, semantic variant PPA or logopenic variant PPA. We describe the clinical evolution of a patient with PPA presenting jargon aphasia as a late feature. At the onset of the disease (ten years ago) the patient showed anomia and executive deficits, followed later on by phonemic paraphasias and neologisms, deficits in verbal short-term memory, naming, verbal and semantic fluency. At recent follow-up the patient developed an unintelligible jargon with both semantic and neologistic errors, as well as with severe deficit of comprehension which precluded any further neuropsychological assessment. Compared to healthy controls, FDG-PET showed a hypometabolism in the left angular and middle temporal gyri, precuneus, caudate, posterior cingulate, middle frontal gyrus, and bilaterally in the superior temporal and inferior frontal gyri. The clinical and neuroimaging profile seems to support the hypothesis that the patient developed a late feature of logopenic variant PPA characterized by jargonaphasia and associated with superior temporal and parietal dysfunction.

Facial Affect Recognition in Myasthenia Gravis

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Lázaro ◽  
Imanol Amayra ◽  
Juan Francisco López-Paz ◽  
Amaia Jometón ◽  
Natalia Martín ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Recognition Accuracy ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Clinical Neurological Examination

AbstractThe assessment of facial expression is an important aspect of a clinical neurological examination, both as an indicator of a mood disorder and as a sign of neurological damage. To date, although studies have been conducted on certain psychosocial aspects of myasthenia, such as quality of life and anxiety, and on neuropsychological aspects such as memory, no studies have directly assessed facial emotion recognition accuracy. The aim of this study was to assess the facial emotion recognition accuracy (fear, surprise, sadness, happiness, anger, and disgust), empathy, and reaction time of patients with myasthenia. Thirty-five patients with myasthenia and 36 healthy controls were tested for their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions. Participants were matched with respect to age, gender, and education level. Their ability to differentiate emotional facial expressions was evaluated using the computer-based program Feel Test. The data showed that myasthenic patients scored significantly lower (p < 0.05) than healthy controls in the total Feel score, fear, surprise, and higher reaction time. The findings suggest that the ability to recognize facial affect may be reduced in individuals with myasthenia.

scholarly journals Right Anterior Temporal Degeneration, Emotions, and Loss of Nonverbal Semantics: Guidelines for Diagnosis of the Emotional Semantic Variant Frontotemporal Dementia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyan Younes ◽  
Valentina Borghesani ◽  
Maxime Montembeault ◽  
Salvatore Spina ◽  
Ariane E Welch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Neuropsychological Testing ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Clinical Syndrome ◽  
Semantic Variant

Anterior temporal lobe (ATL) degeneration is caused by a pathological process that has a focal onset in the left or right hemisphere. Patients with left-lateralized ATL atrophy typically meet criteria for semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a clinical syndrome characterized by loss of verbal semantic knowledge. There is less consensus regarding the symptoms that emerge when atrophy targets the right ATL (rATL), but previous studies have emphasized prosopagnosia as well as alterations in emotion, memory, behavior, and semantic knowledge, symptoms that often lead to a diagnosis of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The goal of the present study was to characterize the cognitive and socioemotional deficits of patients with rATL degeneration in order to refine current conceptualizations of the rATL clinical syndrome. We identified individuals clinically diagnosed as bvFTD or PPA in our cohort of patients prospectively evaluated for FTD-spectrum disorders. We selected patients who also underwent structural MRI and a comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluation (n = 478). Based on structural MRI atrophy index, individuals with predominant, rATL atrophy (n = 46) were identified and patients with co-occurrence of significant frontal atrophy were excluded. Nineteen patients with rATL degeneration had undergone autopsy. We used the clinical histories to identify early symptoms and examined the cognitive, socioemotional, genetic, and pathological profiles of patients with rATL degeneration. In patients with rATL degeneration, the most common early clinical symptoms were loss of empathy (27%), person-specific semantic knowledge (23%), and complex compulsions (18%). On socioemotional testing and informant-reported measures, patients exhibited diminished interpersonal warmth, empathy, and emotional theory of mind. Neuropsychological testing revealed deficits in identifying famous people and discriminating facial affect despite preserved face perception. FTLD-TDP was the most frequent pathological correlate of rATL degeneration (84%), followed by Pick type (10%), a subtype of FTLD-tau. Our results indicate that patients with early, rATL-predominant degeneration present with a behavioral syndrome that results from loss of empathy for others. The underlying mechanism is a progressive loss of semantic knowledge for concepts of social-emotional relevance. We herein refer to this syndrome as emotional semantic variant frontotemporal dementia. We propose novel diagnostic criteria for this rATL syndrome in order to facilitate early identification in clinical and research settings. This classification is relevant because, if appropriately diagnosed, these patients most often have FTLD-TDP Type-C pathology.

Early functional MRI changes in a prodromal semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia: a longitudinal case report

2020 ◽  
Vol 267 (10) ◽  
pp. 3100-3104
Author(s):  
Elisa Canu ◽  
Valentina Bessi ◽  
Davide Calderaro ◽  
David Simoni ◽  
Veronica Castelnovo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Functional Mri ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Primary Progressive ◽  
Semantic Variant ◽  
Mri Changes

scholarly journals Comparing two facets of emotion perception across multiple neurodegenerative diseases

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 511-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey L Brown ◽  
Alice Y Hua ◽  
Lize De Coster ◽  
Virginia E Sturm ◽  
Joel H Kramer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽  
Emotion Perception ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Tracking Task ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Primary Progressive ◽  
Dynamic Tracking ◽  
Semantic Variant

Abstract Deficits in emotion perception (the ability to infer others’ emotions accurately) can occur as a result of neurodegeneration. It remains unclear how different neurodegenerative diseases affect different forms of emotion perception. The present study compares performance on a dynamic tracking task of emotion perception (where participants track the changing valence of a film character’s emotions) with performance on an emotion category labeling task (where participants label specific emotions portrayed by film characters) across seven diagnostic groups (N = 178) including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal syndrome and healthy controls. Consistent with hypotheses, compared to controls, the bvFTD group was impaired on both tasks. The svPPA group was impaired on the emotion labeling task, whereas the nfvPPA, PSP and AD groups were impaired on the dynamic tracking task. Smaller volumes in bilateral frontal and left insular regions were associated with worse labeling, whereas smaller volumes in bilateral medial frontal, temporal and right insular regions were associated with worse tracking. Findings suggest labeling and tracking facets of emotion perception are differentially affected across neurodegenerative diseases due to their unique neuroanatomical correlates.

Conversion between Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III and Mini-Mental State Examination

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1227-1233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi A. Matías-Guiu ◽  
Vanesa Pytel ◽  
Ana Cortés-Martínez ◽  
María Valles-Salgado ◽  
Teresa Rognoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Mini Mental State Examination ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Conversion Table ◽  
State Examination ◽  
Addenbrooke’S Cognitive Examination

ABSTRACTBackground:We aim to provide a conversion between Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores, to predict the MMSE result based on ACE-III, thus avoiding the need for both tests, and improving their comparability.Methods:Equipercentile equating method was used to elaborate a conversion table using a group of 400 participants comprising healthy controls and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Then, reliability was assessed in a group of 100 healthy controls and patients with AD, 52 with primary progressive aphasia and 22 with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.Results:The conversion table between ACE-III and MMSE denoted a high reliability, with intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.940, 0.922, and 0.902 in the groups of healthy controls and AD, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, and primary progressive aphasia, respectively.Conclusion:Our conversion table between ACE-III and MMSE suggests that MMSE may be estimated based on the ACE-III score, which could be useful for clinical and research purposes.

Facial affect recognition: Electrophysiological findings in schizophrenia

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 424-424
Author(s):  
S. Komlosi ◽  
G. Csukly ◽  
G. Stefanics ◽  
I. Czigler ◽  
P. Czobor
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Affect Recognition ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Emotional Face Processing ◽  
Facial Emotion Processing ◽  
Emotional Face

IntroductionWhile deficits in facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia have consistently been shown, the underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unclear. Electrophysiological measures, such as event-related brain potentials related to facial emotion recognition yield insight into the time course of recognizing emotional faces.ObjectivesIn our study we aimed to delineate the neurophysiological correlates of facial emotion recognition and to investigate where, when, and what components in the course of emotional information processing show impairment in schizophrenia.MethodologyWe collected data using a 128-channel EEG recording system for testing an experimental facial emotion recognition paradigm with 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 matched healthy controls. Subjects were presented fearful and neutral emotional facial expressions on a monitor and asked to make decisions via a button press relating to either the gender or the emotion of the presented face.ResultsOur findings revealed that ERPs of pateints with schizophrenia significantly differed from those of matched healthy controls in several components and areas characteristic to facial emotion processing, showing differences in both early and late ERP components of emotional face processing. Significant main effects of task (gender vs emotion) and emotion (fear vs neutral) were also found.ConclusionThe finding that patients with schizophrenia, as compared to healthy controls, show differences in emotional face processing in several cortical areas and time intervals underlines the hypotheses that a deficit in affect recognition may originate from the impairment of a distributed facial emotion recognition network, including both early perceptual and later phases of facial emotion processing.

scholarly journals Ameliorating Emotional Attention through Modulation of Neural Oscillations with Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Liu ◽  
Yuchen He ◽  
Dongyue Guo ◽  
Xiaoya Liu ◽  
Xinyu Hao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Emotion Processing ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Emotional Attention ◽  
P200 Amplitude

AbstractBackgroundNumerous clinical reports suggest that psychopathy like schizophrenia, anxiety and depressive disorder is accompanied by early attentional abnormalities in emotional information processing. In the past decade, the efficacy of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) in changing emotional functioning has been repeatedly observed and has demonstrated a causal relationship between endogenous oscillations and emotional processing. However, tACS effects on emotional attention have not yet been tested.MethodsA total of 53 healthy participants were randomized to 2 groups, and they were subjected to active or sham tACS at individual alpha frequency (IAF) in the bilaterally dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Participants and received this treatment for 20 min durations daily for 7 consecutive days. On days 1 and 7, electroencephalogram (EEG) recording of 8 minute resting with eyes open and closed. Responses to a facial emotion identification task were also recorded to measure alpha changes and event-related potential (ERP) alterations.ResultsOn day 7 after tACS, the active group showed a more clear elevation in alpha power at rest, especially in open state around stimulation area, compared to the sham group. ERPs revealed a significant larger P200 amplitude after active stimulation (p < 0.05), indicating attentional improvement in facial emotion processing. Additionally, a notable positive correlation (p < 0.05) between alpha power and P200 amplitude was found, providing an electrophysiological interpretation regarding the role of tACS in emotional attention modulation. In addition, the IAF-tACS showed an obvious advantage in alpha entrainment compared to an additional 10 Hz-tACS.ConclusionsThese results support a seminal outcome for the effect of IAF-tACS on emotional attention modulation, demonstrating a feasible and individual-specific therapy for neuropsychiatric disorders related to emotion processing, especially regarding oscillatory disturbances.

scholarly journals Differences in Sex Distribution Between Genetic and Sporadic Frontotemporal Dementia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Sterre C.M. de Boer ◽  
Lina Riedl ◽  
Sven J. van der Lee ◽  
Markus Otto ◽  
Sarah Anderl-Straub ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Frontotemporal Dementia ◽  
Primary Progressive Aphasia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Genetic Mutations ◽  
Sex Distribution ◽  
Progressive Aphasia ◽  
Clinical Criteria ◽  
Primary Progressive ◽  
Sporadic Cases ◽  
Semantic Variant

Background: Reported sex distributions differ between frontotemporal dementia (FTD) cohorts. Possible explanations are the evolving clinical criteria of FTD and its subtypes and the discovery of FTD causal genetic mutations that has resulted in varying demographics. Objective: Our aim was to determine the sex distribution of sporadic and genetic FTD cases and its subtypes in an international cohort. Methods: We included 910 patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; n = 654), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA; n = 99), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA; n = 117), and right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (rtvFTD; n = 40). We compared sex distribution between genetic and sporadic FTD using χ2-tests. Results: The genetic FTD group consisted of 51.2% males, which did not differ from sporadic FTD (57.8% male, p = 0.08). In the sporadic bvFTD subgroup, males were predominant in contrast to genetic bvFTD (61.6% versus 52.9% males, p = 0.04). In the other clinical FTD subgroups, genetic cases were underrepresented and within the sporadic cases sex distribution was somewhat equal. Conclusion: The higher male prevalence in sporadic bvFTD may provide important clues for its differential pathogenesis and warrants further research.

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