TY - JOUR
T1 - Integration of intention and outcome for moral judgment in frontotemporal dementia
T2 - Brain structural signatures
AU - Baez, Sandra
AU - Kanske, Philipp
AU - Matallana, Diana
AU - Montañes, Patricia
AU - Reyes, Pablo
AU - Slachevsky, Andrea
AU - Matus, Cristian
AU - Vigliecca, Nora Silvana
AU - Torralva, Teresa
AU - Manes, Facundo
AU - Ibanez, Agustin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.
PY - 2016/4/1
Y1 - 2016/4/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Moral judgment
KW - Structural correlates
KW - Voxel-based morphometry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84957927345&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1159/000441918
DO - 10.1159/000441918
M3 - Article
C2 - 26859768
AN - SCOPUS:84957927345
SN - 1660-2854
VL - 16
SP - 206
EP - 217
JO - Neurodegenerative Diseases
JF - Neurodegenerative Diseases
IS - 3-4
ER -