Certain kinds of dementia could affect empathy

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-12-04 03:00

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Dementia affecting the frontotemporal lobe in the brain (closer to the front and sides of the brain) could affect the person’s ability to feel empathy, according to international researchers. The team recruited 28 people with this dementia and 28 people without dementia and measured their empathy with a series of tests while also measuring brain function with a functional MRI machine. They found patients with frontotemporal dementia showed a reduced brain response in regions known to be important for empathy processing in the healthy human brain. The team also found the results of these brain scans were supported by people who lived with the patients, who confirmed these patients were experiencing a reduced ability to experience empathy.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Karolinska Institute, Sweden

Funder: Drs Harper and Santillo are primarily funded by the Swedish federal government under the ALF agreement (grants ALF ST 2021-2023/4-43338 and ALF 2022 YF 0017, respectively) and the Åke Wiberg Foundation. Dr Fischerwas funded by The Swedish Research Council (grant No. 2013-00854). Drs Harper, Santillo, Wahlund, and Lindberg are all supported by the Schörling Foundation and the Swedish FTD Initiative. Dr Lindberg is additionally funded by the Olle Engkvist foundation and Dr Santillo by The Bundy Academy. Dr Petrovic was funded by The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet grant Nos. 2019-01253 and 2-70/2014-97), Karolinska Institutet (Nos. KID 019-00939 and 2-70/2014-97), Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden No. FO2016-0083), ALF Medicine 2017 (No. 20160039), and Marianne & MarcusWallenbergs Stiftelse (No. MMW2014.0065). Dr Hansson was funded by the National Institute of Aging (No. R01AG083740), Alzheimer’s Association (No. SG-23-1061717), Swedish Research Council (No. 2022-00775), ERA PerMed (No. ERAPERMED2021-184), the Knut and AliceWallenberg foundation (No. 2022-0231), the Strategic Research Area MultiPark (Multidisciplinary Research in Parkinson’s disease) at Lund University, the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation (No. AF-980907), the Swedish Brain Foundation (No. FO2021-0293), the Parkinson Foundation of Sweden (No. 1412/22), the Cure Alzheimer’s fund, the Konung Gustaf V:s och Drottning Victorias Frimurarestiftelse, the Skåne University Hospital Foundation (No. 2020-O000028), Regionalt Forskningsstöd (No. 2022-1259), and the Swedish federal government under the ALF agreement (No. 2022-Projekt0080). Dr Nybergwas supported by a scholar grant from Knut and AliceWallenberg’s Foundation. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Hansson reported receiving grants from ADx, AVID Radiopharmaceuticals, Biogen, Eli Lilly, Eisai, Fujirebio, GE Healthcare, Pfizer, and Roche; he reported receiving consulting or speaker fees from AC Immune, Amylyx, Alzpath, BioArctic, Biogen, Bristol Meyer Squibb, Cerveau, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Fujirebio, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Sanofi, and Siemens. Dr Graff reported grants from Schörling Foundation, Hjärnfonden, Alzheimerfonden, ALF-project Region Stockholm, and Swedish Medical Research Council during the conduct of the study. Dr Nyberg reported personal fees forwork as a reviewer from Alzheimer Foundation outside the submitted work. Dr Santillo reported receiving grants from The Bundy Academy, the Schörling Foundation, and the Kockska Foundation during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

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