The ability to perceive, learn and recognise faces is a complex ability, which is key to successful social interactions. This ability is proposed to be coordinated by neural regions in the occipital and temporal lobes, specialised for face perception and memory. While previous studies have suggested that memory for faces is compromised in some dementia syndromes, it remains unclear whether this simply reflects more generalised memory deficits. Here, we examined basic face perception (Identity-Matching), face recognition (Cambridge Face Memory Task) and object recognition (Cambridge Car Memory Task) in 11 semantic dementia (SD) patients (8 left-lateralised, 3 right-lateralised) and 13 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, compared with 11 controls. On the Identity-Matching task, bvFTD were impaired compared to controls, with a similar trend observed in the SD group. Importantly, both bvFTD and SD also demonstrated impaired face recognition. In contrast, only bvFTD showed impaired object recognition, with SD performing within normal limits on this task. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that Identity-Matching and face recognition were associated with partly dissociable regions including the fusiform cortex and anterior temporal lobe. Object-memory was associated with thalamic integrity in the bvFTD group only. These results reveal that face perception and face memory deficits are common in bvFTD and SD, and have been previously underestimated. These deficits are due to neurodegeneration of key regions within the ‘core’ and ‘extended’ face processing system, providing convergent evidence of the neural regions supporting face perception. From a clinical perspective, impaired ability to recognise faces is common in bvFTD and SD and therefore strategies to improve face perception and memory may be beneficial for these patients.
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机译:感知,学习和识别面孔的能力是一种复杂的能力,这是成功社交互动的关键。提出这种能力由枕骨和颞叶中的神经区域协调,专门用于面对感知和记忆。虽然以前的研究表明,脸部的记忆在一些痴呆症综合征中受到损害,但它仍然不清楚这是否简单地反映了更广泛的内存缺陷。在这里,我们检查了基本的面部感知(身份匹配),面部识别(Cambridge Face Memory Task)和对象识别(剑桥车内存任务)在11个语义痴呆(SD)患者(8左侧,3右侧化)和13行为 - 变体额颞痴呆症(BVFTD)患者,与11个对照相比。在Identity匹配任务上,与对照相比,BVFTD损害,在SD组中观察到类似的趋势。重要的是,BVFTD和SD都既表明人脸识别受损。相反,只有BVFTD显示对象识别有损,SD在该任务的正常限制内执行。基于体的形态学分析表明,身份匹配和面部识别与部分离心区域有关,包括梭形皮质和前颞叶。对象存储器仅与BVFTD组中的泰语完整性相关联。这些结果表明,BVFTD和SD中的面部感知和面部记忆缺陷常见,并且先前已经低估了。这些缺陷是由于“核心”和“延长”面部处理系统内的关键区域的神经损伤,提供了支持面部感知的神经区域的会聚证据。从临床的角度来看,识别面孔的受损能力在BVFTD和SD中常见,因此改善面部感知和记忆的策略可能对这些患者有益。
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