title: Observing conversational laughter in frontotemporal dementia.
abstract: We performed an observational study of laughter during seminaturalistic conversations between patients with dementia and familial caregivers. Patients were diagnosed with (1) behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), (2) right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia (rtFTD), (3) semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), (4) non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) or (5) early onset Alzheimer's disease (eoAD). We hypothesised that those with bvFTD would laugh less in response to their own speech than other dementia groups or controls, while those with rtFTD would laugh less regardless of who was speaking.
  
  
  
  Patients with bvFTD (n=39), svPPA (n=19), rtFTD (n=14), nfvPPA (n=16), eoAD (n=17) and healthy controls (n=156) were recorded (video and audio) while discussing a problem in their relationship with a healthy control companion. Using the audio track only, laughs were identified by trained coders and then further classed by an automated algorithm as occurring during or shortly after the participant's own vocalisation ('self' context) or during or shortly after the partner's vocalisation ('partner' context).
  
  
  
  Individuals with bvFTD, eoAD or rtFTD laughed less across both contexts of self and partner than the other groups. Those with bvFTD laughed less relative to their own speech comparedwith healthy controls. Those with nfvPPA laughed more in the partner context compared with healthy controls.
  
  
  
  Laughter in response to one's own vocalisations or those of a conversational partner may be a clinically useful measure in dementia diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Rocky Mountain Alzheimer's Disease Center, Department of Neurology, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA ppressman@memory.ucsf.edu peter.pressman@ucdenver.edu.|Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.|Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Pressman
authors.affiliation: Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gola
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Suzanne M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Shdo
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Edoardo G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Maria Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gorno-Tempini
authors.affiliation: Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rankin
authors.affiliation: Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Levenson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007845:Laughter / Q000523:psychology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D057178:Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia / Q000473:pathology; D013060:Speech