Category: Neuroimaging (Non-PD)
Objective: This study investigated the relationship between emotion processing and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) of the brain networks in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
Background: Defective emotion recognition can lead to altered social interactions, especially in disorders affecting the frontal and the temporal lobes, such as those belonging to the FTLD spectrum.
Method: Eighty FTLD patients (including cases with behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome, motor neuron disease) and 65 healthy controls underwent rs-functional MRI. Emotion processing was tested using the Comprehensive Affect Testing System (CATS). In patients and controls, correlations were investigated between each emotion construct and rs-FC changes within critical networks. Mean rs-FC of the clusters significantly associated with CATS scoring were compared between FTLD groups.
Results: FTLD patients had pathological CATS scores compared with controls. In controls, increased rs-FC of the cerebellar and visuo-associative networks correlated with better scores in emotion-matching and discrimination tasks, respectively; while decreased rs-FC of the visuo-spatial network was related with better performance in the affect-matching and naming. In FTLD, the associations between rs-FC and CATS scores involved more brain regions, such as orbitofrontal and middle frontal gyri within anterior networks (i.e., salience and default-mode), parietal and somatosensory regions within visuo-spatial and sensorimotor networks, caudate and thalamus within basal-ganglia network. Rs-FC changes associated with CATS were similar among all FTLD groups.
Conclusion: In FTLD compared to controls, the pattern of rs-FC associated with emotional processing involves a larger number of brain regions, likely due to functional specificity loss and compensatory attempts. These associations were similar across all FTLD groups, suggesting a common physiopathological mechanism of emotion processing breakdown, regardless the clinical presentation and pattern of atrophy.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
F. Agosta, E. Canu, D. Calderaro, V. Castelnovo, S. Basaia, MA. Magno, N. Riva, G. Magnani, F. Caso, P. Caroppo, S. Prioni, C. Villa, D. Pain, G. Mora, L. Tremolizzo, I. Appollonio, B. Poletti, V. Silani, M. Filippi. Resting state functional brain networks associated with emotion processing in frontotemporal lobar degeneration [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2022; 37 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/resting-state-functional-brain-networks-associated-with-emotion-processing-in-frontotemporal-lobar-degeneration/. Accessed November 10, 2026.« Back to 2022 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/resting-state-functional-brain-networks-associated-with-emotion-processing-in-frontotemporal-lobar-degeneration/