Social cognition in frontotemporal dementia and Huntington's disease.

Full Abstract

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Huntington's disease (HD) are degenerative disorders, with predominant involvement, respectively of frontal neocortex and striatum. Both conditions give rise to altered social conduct and breakdown in interpersonal relationships, although the factors underlying these changes remain poorly defined. The study used tests of theory of mind (interpretation of cartoons and stories and judgement of preference based on eye gaze) to explore the ability of patients with FTD and HD to interpret social situations and ascribe mental states to others. Performance in the FTD group was severely impaired on all tasks, regardless of whether the test condition required attribution of a mental state. The HD group showed a milder impairment in cartoon and story interpretation, and normal preference judgements. Qualitative differences in performance were demonstrated between groups. FTD patients made more concrete, literal interpretations, whereas HD patients were more likely to misconstrue situations. The findings are interpreted as demonstrating impaired theory of mind in FTD, as one component of widespread executive deficits. In HD the evidence does not suggest a fundamental loss of theory of mind, but rather a tendency to draw faulty inferences from social situations. It is concluded that social breakdown in FTD and HD may have a different underlying basis and that the frontal neocortex and striatum have distinct contributions to social behaviour.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Snowden, J S (JS); Gibbons, Z C (ZC); Blackshaw, A (A); Doubleday, E (E); Thompson, J (J); Craufurd, D (D); Foster, J (J); Happé, F (F); Neary, D (D);

Affiliation: Cerebral Function Unit, Greater Manchester Neuroscience Centre, Hope Hospital, Salford M6 8HD, UK. julie.snowden(-atsign-)man.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-; vol 41 (issue 6) : pp 688-701

Dates: Created 2003/02/19; Completed 2003/05/15; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12591026, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Cognition
Dementia - pathology; psychology
Female
Frontal Lobe - pathology
Humans
Huntington Disease - psychology

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.