Integration of intention and outcome for moral judgment in Ffrontotemporal dementia : brain structural signatures

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Date
2016-02-09Authors
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de EnvejecimientoBaez, Sandra
Kanske, Philipp
Matallana, Diana
Montañes, Patricia
Reyes, Pablo
Slachevsky, Andrea
Matus, Cristian
Vigliecca, Nora Silvana
Torralva, Teresa
Manes, Facundo
Ibanez, Agustin
Type
Artículo de revista
ISSN
1660-2854 / 1660-2862 (Electrónico)
Pages
206-217
Item type
Artículo original
Tipo
Artículo de revistaShare this record
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Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Moral judgment has been proposed to rely on a distributed brain network. This function is impaired in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a condition involving damage to some regions of this network. However, no studies have investigated moral judgment in bvFTD via structural neuroimaging.
METHODS:
We compared the performance of 21 bvFTD patients and 19 controls on a moral judgment task involving scenarios that discriminate between the contributions of intentions and outcomes. Voxel-based morphometry was used to assess (a) the atrophy pattern in bvFTD patients, (b) associations between gray matter (GM) volume and moral judgments, and (c) structural differences between bvFTD subgroups (patients with relatively preserved moral judgment and patients with severer moral judgment impairments).
RESULTS:
Patients judged attempted harm as more permissible and accidental harm as less permissible than controls. The groups' performance on accidental harm was associated with GM volume in the precuneus. In controls, it was al- so associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). Also, both groups' performance on attempted harm was associated with GM volume in the temporoparietal junction. Patients exhibiting worse performance displayed smaller GM volumes in the precuneus and temporal pole.
CONCLUSIONS:
Results suggest that moral judgment abnormalities in bvFTD are associated with impaired integration of intentions and outcomes, which depends on an extended brain network. In bvFTD, moral judgment seems to critically depend on areas beyond the VMPFC.
Keywords
Moral judgmentBehavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia
Magnetic resonance imaging
Voxel-based morphometry
Structural correlates
Link to the resource
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26859768Source
Neurodegenerative Diseases; Vol. 16 Núm. 3-4 (2016)
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