Face shape and face identity processing in behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia: A specific deficit for familiarity and name recognition of famous faces.

François-Laurent De Winter,Dorien Timmers,Mathieu Vandenbulcke,Koen Van Laere,Rik Vandenberghe,Miriam Bouckaert,Stefan Sunaert,Marleen Vieren,Gert Cypers,Beatrice De Gelder,Jan Van Den Stock,Jo Caekebeke,Laura Van De Vliet,Marc Van Orshoven,Karolien Goffin

doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2016.03.001

François-Laurent De Winter, Dorien Timmers + Show 13 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2016.03.001

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Abstract

Deficits in face processing have been described in the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD), primarily regarding the recognition of facial expressions. Less is known about face shape and face identity processing. Here we used a hierarchical strategy targeting face shape and face identity recognition in bvFTD and matched healthy controls. Participants performed 3 psychophysical experiments targeting face shape detection (Experiment 1), unfamiliar face identity matching (Experiment 2), familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching (Experiment 3). The results revealed group differences only in Experiment 3, with a deficit in the bvFTD group for both familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching. Voxel-based morphometry regression analyses in the bvFTD group revealed an association between grey matter volume of the left ventral anterior temporal lobe and familiarity recognition, while face-name matching correlated with grey matter volume of the bilateral ventral anterior temporal lobes. Subsequently, we quantified familiarity-specific and name-specific recognition deficits as the sum of the celebrities of which respectively only the name or only the familiarity was accurately recognized. Both indices were associated with grey matter volume of the bilateral anterior temporal cortices. These findings extent previous results by documenting the involvement of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in familiarity detection and the right ATL in name recognition deficits in fronto-temporal lobar degeneration.

Highlights

Fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (Neary et al, 1998) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with atrophy of the temporal and/or frontal lobes
Patients with such brain atrophy can present with behavioral symptoms - designated behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (Rascovsky et al, 2011) - or language deficits - designated primary progressive aphasia (Gorno-Tempini et al, 2011)
The picture emerging from the findings reported above consists of a possible deficit in face identity processing in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia as well as a deficit in famous face recognition in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, associated with anterior temporal grey matter volume

Summary

Introduction

Fronto-temporal lobar degeneration (Neary et al, 1998) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with atrophy of the temporal and/or frontal lobes. The main regions of brain atrophy are often responsible for the corresponding symptoms. Patients with such brain atrophy can present with behavioral symptoms - designated behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (Rascovsky et al, 2011) - or language deficits - designated primary progressive aphasia (Gorno-Tempini et al, 2011). The former is characterized by progressive deterioration of personality, behavior and cognition, with atrophy situated in the anterior temporal, mesio-. De Winter et al / NeuroImage: Clinical 11 (2016) 368–377

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