title: Getting on the same page: the neural basis for social coordination deficits in behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration.
abstract: For social interactions to be successful, individuals must establish shared mental representations that allow them to reach a common understanding and "get on the same page". We refer to this process as social coordination. While examples of social coordination are ubiquitous in daily life, relatively little is known about the neuroanatomic basis of this complex behavior. This is particularly true in a language context, as previous studies have used overly complex paradigms to study this. Although traditional views of language processing and the recent interactive-alignment account of conversation focus on peri-Sylvian regions, our model of social coordination predicts prefrontal involvement. To test this hypothesis, we examine the neural basis of social coordination during conversational exchanges in non-aphasic patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration (bvFTD). bvFTD patients show impairments in executive function and social comportment due to disease in frontal and anterior temporal regions. To investigate social coordination in bvFTD, we developed a novel language-based task that assesses patients' ability to convey an object's description to a conversational partner. Experimental conditions manipulated the amount of information shared by the participant and the conversational partner, and the associated working memory demands. Our results indicate that, although patients did not have difficulty identifying the features of the objects, they did produce descriptions that included insufficient or inappropriate adjectives and thus struggled to communicate effectively. Impaired performance was related to gray matter atrophy particularly in medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices. Our findings suggest an important role for non-language brain areas that belong to a large-scale neurocognitive network for social coordination.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Neuroscience Graduate Group, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA. Electronic address: mheal@mail.med.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Meghan L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Healey
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: Corey T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: McMillan
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Golob
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Spotorno
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: Katya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rascovsky
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Irwin
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Department of Neurology and Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Neuroscience Graduate Group, Philadelphia, 19104 PA, USA. Electronic address: mgrossma@upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grossman
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D057174:Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D066128:Gray Matter / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Discourse; Frontotemporal degeneration; Language; Perspective-taking; Prefrontal cortex; Social cognition