Reduced harm aversion relates to antisocial behaviors and orbitofrontal atrophy in dementia patients.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Antisocial behaviors occur in dementia, but the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain underexplored. We administered a decision-making task measuring patients' harm aversion by offering options to shock themselves or another person in exchange for money, hypothesizing that task performance would relate to antisocial behaviors and ventromedial/orbitofrontal cortex (vmPFC/OFC) atrophy.

Methods

Among 43 dementia patients (n = 23 behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia [bvFTD], n = 20 Alzheimer's disease [AD]), we used linear regressions to measure relationships between harm aversion and antisocial behavior, psychopathic personality traits, socioemotional functions, and vmPFC/OFC cortical thickness, controlling for age, sex, and cognitive dysfunction.

Re

SUBMITTER: Phan TX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12417317 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature