Neuroanatomical correlates of cognitive self-appraisal in neurodegenerative disease.
Self-appraisal is a critical cognitive function, which helps us to choose tasks based on an accurate assessment of our abilities. The neural mechanisms of self-appraisal are incompletely understood, although a growing body of literature suggests that several frontal and subcortical regions are important for self-related processing. Anosognosia, or lack of awareness of one's deficits, is common in neurodegenerative dementias, offering an important window onto the brain systems involved in self-appraisal. We examined the neuroanatomical basis of self-appraisal in a mixed group of 39 individuals, including 35 with cognitive impairment due to one of several probable neurodegenerative diseases, using voxel-based morphometry and an objective, neuropsychologically-based measure of self-appraisal accuracy. Self-appraisal accuracy was correlated with tissue content in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). We hypothesize that emotional/physiological processing carried out by vmPFC is an important factor mediating self-appraisal accuracy in dementia.
Rosen
Howard J
HJ
Department of Neurology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. hrosen@memory.ucsf.edu
Alcantar
Oscar
O
Rothlind
Johannes
J
Sturm
Virginia
V
Kramer
Joel H
JH
Weiner
Michael
M
Miller
Bruce L
BL
D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity