title: Impaired recognition of body expressions in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia.
abstract: Progressive deterioration of social cognition and emotion processing are core symptoms of the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). Here we investigate whether bvFTD is also associated with impaired recognition of static (Experiment 1) and dynamic (Experiment 2) bodily expressions. In addition, we compared body expression processing with processing of static (Experiment 3) and dynamic (Experiment 4) facial expressions, as well as with face identity processing (Experiment 5). The results reveal that bvFTD is associated with impaired recognition of static and dynamic bodily and facial expressions, while identity processing was intact. No differential impairments were observed regarding motion (static vs. dynamic) or category (body vs. face). Within the bvFTD group, we observed a significant partial correlation between body and face expression recognition, when controlling for performance on the identity task. Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) analysis revealed that body emotion recognition was positively associated with gray matter volume in a region of the inferior frontal gyrus (pars orbitalis/triangularis). The results are in line with a supramodal emotion recognition deficit in bvFTD.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven & Old Age Psychiatry, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: jan.vandenstock@med.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van den Stock
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven & Old Age Psychiatry, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: François-Laurent
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: De Winter
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven & Old Age Psychiatry, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Gelder
authors.affiliation: ESAT/PSI, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven & iMinds, Medical IT Department, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Janaki Raman
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Rangarajan
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis Aalst-Asse-Ninove, Aalst, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cypers
authors.affiliation: ESAT/PSI, Department of Electrical Engineering, KU Leuven & iMinds, Medical IT Department, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven & Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sunaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven & Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Karolien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goffin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven & Neurology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Rik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vandenberghe
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, Research Group Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven & Old Age Psychiatry, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vandenbulcke
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; Body; Emotion; Inferior frontal gyrus; Supramodal emotion recognition