Frontotemporal dementia affects empathy and social behavior, with reduced brain activity in empathy-related regions.
Patients with frontotemporal dementia often struggle with empathy. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that, unlike healthy individuals, these patients show reduced brain activity when observing others in pain. This finding offers valuable insights into the unique challenges of this form of dementia and may help improve our understanding of the condition.
Research on Brain Activity and Empathy
Every year, approximately 25,000 people in Sweden are diagnosed with dementia, with around 3% of these cases identified as frontotemporal dementia. This form of dementia is particularly challenging to diagnose and is characterized by a loss of empathy, which can create significant difficulties not only for patients but also for their families.
In a new study led by Olof Lindberg of Karolinska Institutet and Alexander Santillo of Lund University, researchers analyzed 28 individuals with frontotemporal dementia using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Key Findings: Empathy and Brain Activation
The study investigated how brain activity responded when participants viewed images of hands being pierced by needles—scenes that typically activate brain regions associated with recognizing suffering or pain in others. This approach provided valuable insights into the neurological underpinnings of empathy loss in frontotemporal dementia.
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.
Implications for Understanding Frontotemporal Dementia
“What is particularly interesting is that we have been able to relate this measure of brain activity in patients to how carers rate their lack of empathy. There turned out to be a strong correlation, and that’s important. It shows that what happens in the brain is connected to the people’s behavior,” says Olof Lindberg.
Dementia usually means memory problems, but frontotemporal dementia with a loss of ability to empathize with other people can resemble other conditions with empathy problems in psychiatry, such as psychopathy. Olof Lindberg believes that the new findings on how brain activity is affected will increase understanding of the disease.
“This captures a key symptom in patients, and with a lack of empathy, it naturally becomes more difficult to act socially. So, it can affect the judgment of whether to be cared for at home, for example.”
Reference: “Altered Empathy Processing in Frontotemporal Dementia” by Olof Lindberg, Tie-Qiang Li, Cecilia Lind, Susanna Vestberg, Ove Almkvist, Mikael Stiernstedt, Anita Ericson, Nenad Bogdanovic, Oskar Hansson, Luke Harper, Eric Westman, Caroline Graff, Theofanis Tsevis, Peter Mannfolk, Håkan Fischer, Gustav Nilsonne, Predrag Petrovic, Lars Nyberg, Lars-Olof Wahlund and Alexander F. Santillo, 3 December 2024, JAMA Network Open.
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.48601
The study was carried out in collaboration between Skåne University Hospital, Norrland University Hospital, and Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge.
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