White Matter Changes Associated with Resting Sympathetic Tone in Frontotemporal Dementia vs. Alzheimer's Disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Resting sympathetic tone, a measure of physiological arousal, is decreased in patients with apathy and inertia, such as those with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and other frontally-predominant disorders.

Objective

To identify the neuroanatomical correlates of skin conductance levels (SCLs), an index of resting sympathetic tone and apathy, among patients with bvFTD, where SCLs is decreased, compared to those with Alzheimer's disease (AD), where it is not.

Methods

This study analyzed bvFTD (n = 14) patients and a comparison group with early-onset AD (n = 19). We compared their resting SCLs with gray matter and white matter regions of interest and white matter measures of fiber integrity on magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor i

SUBMITTER: Mendez MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4659677 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature