Dec 3, 2024 10:05 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1066517
INTRO: Patients with frontotemporal dementia often lack the ability to empathize. A study at Karolinska Institutet has now shown that these patients do not show the same brain activity as healthy individuals when they witness the pain of others, a finding that it is hoped will increase understanding of this specific dementia disease.
Around 25 000 Swedes are affected by dementia every year. Of these, about three percent are diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The disease is difficult to diagnose, but one of its characteristics is that sufferers lose the ability to empathize, which can lead to problems for them, and not least for their relatives.
In the current study, led by researchers Olof Lindberg at Karolinska Institutet and Alexander Santillo at Lund University, 28 patients diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia were analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The researchers were able to see how the subjects' brain activity was affected when they were shown images of hands being penetrated by needles, which normally activates the parts of the brain that tend to react to the experience of suffering or pain in others.
The study shows that people with frontotemporal dementia do not display any activation of the frontal brain networks that are activated in the control group of age-matched healthy individuals... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: Patients with frontotemporal dementia often lack the ability to empathize. A study at Karolinska Institutet has now shown that these patients do not show the same brain activity as healthy individuals when they witness the pain of others, a finding that it is hoped will increase understanding of this specific dementia disease.
Around 25 000 Swedes are affected by dementia every year. Of these, about three percent are diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. The disease is difficult to diagnose, but one of its characteristics is that sufferers lose the ability to empathize, which can lead to problems for them, and not least for their relatives.
In the current study, led by researchers Olof Lindberg at Karolinska Institutet and Alexander Santillo at Lund University, 28 patients diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia were analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The researchers were able to see how the subjects' brain activity was affected when they were shown images of hands being penetrated by needles, which normally activates the parts of the brain that tend to react to the experience of suffering or pain in others.
The study shows that people with frontotemporal dementia do not display any activation of the frontal brain networks that are activated in the control group of age-matched healthy individuals... (MORE - details, no ads)