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. 2019 Nov 22:13:1259.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.01259. eCollection 2019.

Association Between Social Cognition Changes and Resting State Functional Connectivity in Frontotemporal Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Healthy Controls

Namita Multani  1 , Foad Taghdiri  1 , Cassandra J Anor  1 , Brenda Varriano  1 , Karen Misquitta  1 , David F Tang-Wai  2 , Ron Keren  2 , Susan Fox  3 , Anthony E Lang  3 , Anne Catherine Vijverman  3 , Connie Marras  3 , Maria Carmela Tartaglia  1   2
Affiliations

Association Between Social Cognition Changes and Resting State Functional Connectivity in Frontotemporal Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Healthy Controls

Namita Multani et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Objective: To determine the relationship between alterations in resting state functional connectivity and social cognition dysfunction among patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and healthy controls (HC).

Methods: Fifty-seven participants (FTD = 10, AD = 18, PD = 19, and HC = 10) underwent structural and functional imaging and completed the Awareness of Social Inference Test-Emotion Evaluation Test (TASIT-EET), Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) scale, Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and Social Norms Questionnaire (SNQ). A multi-variate pattern analysis (MVPA) was carried out to determine activation differences between the groups. The clusters from the MVPA were used as seeds for the ROI-to-voxel analysis. Relationship between social cognition deficits and uncinate integrity was also investigated.

Results: BOLD signal activation differed among the four groups of AD, PD, FTD, and HC in the left inferior temporal gyrus-anterior division [L-ITG (ant)], right central opercular cortex (R-COp), right supramarginal gyrus, posterior division (R-SMG, post), right angular gyrus (R-AG), and R-ITG. The BOLD co-activation of the L-ITG (ant) with bilateral frontal pole (FP) and paracingulate gyrus was positively associated with IRI-perspective taking (PT) (r = 0.38, p = 0.007), SNQ total (r = 0.37, p = 0.009), and TASIT-EET (r = 0.47, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Patients with neurodegenerative diseases showed alterations in connectivity in brain regions important for social cognition compared with HCs. Functional connectivity correlated with performance on social cognition tasks and alterations could be responsible for some of the social cognition deficits observed in all neurodegenerative diseases.

Keywords: functional connectivity; neurodegeneration; neuroimage analysis; resting-state fMRI; social cognition.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Voxel-to-voxel analysis: regions demonstrated a difference in peak BOLD signal between the four groups (i.e., AD, PD, FTD, and HC): (a) L-ITG (ant.), (b) RCOp, (c) R-SMG (post.) and R-AG, and (d) R-ITG.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
ROI-to-voxel analysis, group differences for each seed extracted for voxel-to-voxel analysis: (A) Group differences for functional connectivity of L-ITG, (B) group differences for functional connectivity of R-COp, (C) group differences for functional connectivity of R-SMG and R-AG, and (D) group differences for functional connectivity of R-ITG.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
TASIT-EET association with connectivity between L-ITG (ant) and bilateral FP, PCG.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Mediation analyses: effect of the UF on the observed effects of “group” on the functional connectivity between the L-ITG (ant), and bilateral FP and PCG.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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