Apathy in pre-symptomatic genetic frontotemporal dementia predicts cognitive decline and is driven by structural brain changes

Publication: Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association

Maura Malpetti, P. Simon Jones, Kamen A. Tsvetanov, Timothy Rittman, John C. van Swieten, Barbara Borroni, Raquel Sanchez‐Valle, Fermin Moreno, Robert Laforce, Caroline Graff, Matthis Synofzik, Daniela Galimberti, Mario Masellis, Maria Carmela Tartaglia, Elizabeth Finger, Rik Vandenberghe, Alexandre de Mendonça, Fabrizio Tagliavini
Isabel Santana, Simon Ducharme, Chris R. Butler, Alexander Gerhard, Johannes Levin, Adrian Danek, Markus Otto,Giovanni B. Frisoni, Roberta Ghidoni, Sandro Sorbi,Carolin Heller,Emily G. Todd, Martina Bocchetta, David M. Cash,Rhian S. Convery, Georgia Peakman, Katrina M. Moore, Jonathan D. Rohrer, Rogier A. Kievit, James B. Rowe

15 December 2020


Summary:

Apathy – a lack of interest or motivation – could predict the onset of some forms of dementia many years before symptoms start, offering a ‘window of opportunity’ to treat the disease at an early stage. Apathy changes decades before dementia onset and is driven by early brain shrinkage in individuals at risk of dementia. Early signs of apathy before dementia predict a faster decline in cognitive performance. Apathy can point to early brain changes even years before dementia symptoms begin, providing a window of opportunity to intervene and slow disease progression. Read the full news story.

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