Self-appraisal in behavioural variant frontotemporal degeneration

Lauren Massimo, David J. Libon, Keerthi Chandrasekaran, Michael Dreyfuss, Corey T. McMillan, Katya Rascovsky, Ashley Boller, Murray Grossman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: Previous work investigating deficits in self-appraisal in behavioural-variant frontotemporal degeneration (bvFTD) has focused on a single domain: social/behavioural processes. We examined whether a domain-specific versus multi-domain model best explains degraded self-appraisal in bvFTD. Methods: 49 patients with bvFTD and 73 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) were administered quantitative assessments of episodic memory, naming and grammatical comprehension. Self-appraisal of cognitive test performance was assessed by asking patients to rate their performance immediately after completing each neuropsychological test. A discrepancy score was created to reflect the difference between patient performance on neuropsychological tests and self-appraisal of their test performance. Self-appraisal for each neuropsychological measure was related to grey matter (GM) density in each group using voxel-based morphometry. Results: bvFTD patients were poor at evaluating their own performance on all cognitive tests, with no significant correlations between self-appraisal and actual performance. By contrast, poor self-appraisal in AD was restricted to episodic memory performance. Poor self-appraisal on each task in bvFTD and AD was related to reduced GM density in several ventral and rostral medial prefrontal regions. Crucially, poor self-appraisal for all domains in bvFTD was related to a specific area of reduced GM density in the subgenual cingulate (BA 25). Conclusion: Poor self-appraisal in bvFTD affects multiple domains, and this multi-domain impairment pattern is associated with frontal disease in the subgenual cingulate.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)148-153
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
Volume84
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2013
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Surgery
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Self-appraisal in behavioural variant frontotemporal degeneration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this