Brain Network Organization and Social Executive Performance in Frontotemporal Dementia

SEDEÑO LUCAS; COUTO BLAS; GARCÍA CORDERO INDIRA; MELLONI MARGHERITA; BAEZ SANDRA ; MORALES SEPULVEDA JUAN; FRAIMAN DANIEL; HUEPE DAVID ; HURTADO ESTEBAN ; MATALLANA DIANA; KULJIS RODRIGO ; TORRALVA TERESA ; CHIALVO DANTE ; SIGMAN MARIANO ; PIGUET OLIVER ; MANES FACUNDO; IBAÑEZ AGUSTIN

JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY : JINS.

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2015

1355-6177

Objectives: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is characterized by early atrophy in the frontotemporoinsularregions. These regions overlap with networks that are engaged in social cognition-executive functions, two hallmarksdeficits of bvFTD. We examine (i) whether Network Centrality (a graph theory metric that measures how important a node isin a brain network) in the frontotemporoinsular network is disrupted in bvFTD, and (ii) the level of involvement of thisnetwork in social-executive performance. Methods: Patients with probable bvFTD, healthy controls, and frontoinsular strokepatients underwent functional MRI resting-state recordings and completed social-executive behavioral measures. Results:Relative to the controls and the stroke group, the bvFTD patients presented decreased Network Centrality. In addition, thismeasure was associated with social cognition and executive functions. To test the specificity of these results for the NetworkCentrality of the frontotemporoinsular network, we assessed the main areas from six resting-state networks. No group differencesor behavioral associations were found in these networks. Finally, Network Centrality and behavior distinguished bvFTDpatients from the other groups with a high classification rate. Conclusions: bvFTD selectively affects Network Centrality inthe frontotemporoinsular network, which is associated with high-level social and executive profile.