title: Frontotemporal dementia as a frontostriatal disorder: neostriatal morphology as a biomarker and structural basis for an endophenotype.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article reviews the evidence for a re-conceptualisation of a subtype of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), as a frontostriatal disorder, working towards an endophenotype.
  
  
  METHODS
  We provide an overview of the role of frontostriatal circuits relevant to FTLD and FTD, as a subset of larger-scale distributed brain networks. We discuss the role of a strategic structure in these circuits, the neostriatum. Then we review the relationship of the clinical features of FTLD to frontostriatal circuits, correlating this with neuropsychological and neuropathological data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The unique structure and linkages of the neostriatum make it an ideal structure for in vivo neuroimaging to understand the neuroanatomical basis of FTD. We develop a frontostriatal endophenotypic model for FTD as a platform for further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for the Neurosciences of Ageing, Academic Unit of Psychological Medicine, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, Australia. jeffrey.looi@anu.edu.au
authors.forename: Jeffrey C L
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Looi
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walterfang
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Velakoulis
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Macfarlane
authors.forename: Leif Anders
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Svensson
authors.forename: Lars-Olof
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Wahlund
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D058068:Endophenotypes; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000473:pathology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers