title: Right Limbic FDG-PET Hypometabolism Correlates with Emotion Recognition and Attribution in Probable Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia Patients.
abstract: The behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a rare disease mainly affecting the social brain. FDG-PET fronto-temporal hypometabolism is a supportive feature for the diagnosis. It may also provide specific functional metabolic signatures for altered socio-emotional processing. In this study, we evaluated the emotion recognition and attribution deficits and FDG-PET cerebral metabolic patterns at the group and individual levels in a sample of sporadic bvFTD patients, exploring the cognitive-functional correlations. Seventeen probable mild bvFTD patients (10 male and 7 female; age 67.8±9.9) were administered standardized and validated version of social cognition tasks assessing the recognition of basic emotions and the attribution of emotions and intentions (i.e., Ekman 60-Faces test-Ek60F and Story-based Empathy task-SET). FDG-PET was analysed using an optimized voxel-based SPM method at the single-subject and group levels. Severe deficits of emotion recognition and processing characterized the bvFTD condition. At the group level, metabolic dysfunction in the right amygdala, temporal pole, and middle cingulate cortex was highly correlated to the emotional recognition and attribution performances. At the single-subject level, however, heterogeneous impairments of social cognition tasks emerged, and different metabolic patterns, involving limbic structures and prefrontal cortices, were also observed. The derangement of a right limbic network is associated with altered socio-emotional processing in bvFTD patients, but different hypometabolic FDG-PET patterns and heterogeneous performances on social tasks at an individual level exist.
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Clinical Neuroscience Department, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cerami
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dodich
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Clinical Neuroscience Department, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iannaccone
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Clinical Neuroscience Department, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcone
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giada
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lettieri
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crespi
authors.affiliation: Nuclear Medicine Department, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gianolli
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; NeTS Center, Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Cappa
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy; Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Nuclear Medicine Department, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Perani
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012919:Social Behavior
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18