Convergent Regional Brain Abnormalities in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia: A Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis of 73 Studies Publisher



Kamalian A¹ ; Khodadadifar T² ; Saberi A^{3, 4} ; Masoudi M¹ ; Camilleri JA^{3, 4} ; Eickhoff CR^{5, 6} ; Zarei M⁷ ; Pasquini L⁸ ; Laird AR⁹ ; Fox PT^{10, 11} ; Eickhoff SB^{3, 4} ; Tahmasian M^{3, 4}
Source: Alzheimer's and Dementia: Diagnosis# Assessment and Disease Monitoring Published:2022

Abstract

Introduction: Numerous studies have reported brain alterations in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). However, they pointed to inconsistent findings. Methods: We used a meta-analytic approach to identify the convergent structural and functional brain abnormalities in bvFTD. Following current best-practice neuroimaging meta-analysis guidelines, we searched PubMed and Embase databases and performed reference tracking. Then, the coordinates of group comparisons between bvFTD and controls from 73 studies were extracted and tested for convergence using activation likelihood estimation. Results: We identified convergent abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortices, anterior insula, amygdala, paracingulate, striatum, and hippocampus. Task-based and resting-state functional connectivity pointed to the networks that are connected to the obtained consistent regions. Functional decoding analyses suggested associated dysfunction of emotional processing, interoception, reward processing, higher-order cognitive functions, and olfactory and gustatory perceptions in bvFTD. Discussion: Our findings highlighted the key role of the salience network and subcortical regions in the pathophysiology of bvFTD. © 2022 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.