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A different pattern of interactions between cognitive control and social cognition in the frontal variant of Frontotemporal Dementia in comparison with cognitively intact elderly adults

Niki Morou1*, Vasileios Papaliagkas2, Vassiliki Costa3, Panagiotis Ioannidis4, Georgia Papantoniou5 and DESPINA MORAITOU6
  • 1 Aristotitle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 2 AHEPA University Hospital, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Greece
  • 3 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Neurology A, Greece
  • 4 AHEPA University Hospital, Department of Neurology B, Greece
  • 5 University of Ioannina, Department of Pre=school Education, Greece
  • 6 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Greece

Aim: The present study aims to investigate the relationship between cognitive control (Cc) and Theory of Mind(ToM) in elderly cognitively healthy adults and older adults with frontal variant of Frontotemporal Dementia (fvFTD). Method: The three groups (healthy elderly adults-HEA, cognitively intact older adults with vascular risk factors-VRF, ftFTD) underwent a neuropsychological assessment, measuring distinct dimensions of Cc and ToM. Results: Generalized linear mixed model analysis revealed a significant deficit in inhibitory control and planning for ftFTD group, but regarding task switching significant differences were observed only for a few sub-conditions between ftFTD and the control groups. Multi-group path analysis revealed two different patterns of relationships among Cc and ToM, for VRF and ftFTD groups respectively, suggesting a significant effect of Cc on ToM in healthy people and a severe damage of the interaction between these cognitive mechanisms in ftFTD. Conclusion: The different patterns that emerged regarding the associations between Cc and ToM for the two groups are probably indicating the crucial role of Cc for ToM performance. The impaired interconnection among Cc and ToM in ftFTD may result from underlying damages in the subjective neural circuit, due to the progression of neurodegeneration during the disease. 1.Background Recent cognitive neuropsychological research has focused on the relationship between social cognition and cognitive control in varying forms of dementias (Irish, Graham, Graham, Hodges, & Hornberger, 2012; Kertesz, McMonagle, Blair, Davidson, & Munoz, 2005). Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion recognition, in particular, are dimensions of social cognition, necessary for social interactions (Grady & Keightley, 2002; Moran, 2013). Cognitive control refers to self-initiative cognitive processing, which involves a series of complex higher-order processes, known as executive functions (Alvarez & Emory, 2006; Lenartowicz, Kalar, Congdon, & Poldrack, 2010). The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between these cognitive mechanisms in the frontal type of Frontotemporal Dementia (ftFTD), as previous studies (Adenzato et al., 2010; Irish et al., 2012; Poletti et al., 2012) suggested that the major deficits in ftFTD involve certain abilities of social cognition and executive function, however without having provided a fully clarified picture. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Participants The total sample consisted of 43 older adults (22 males, 21 females), aged between 53 to 88 years old (mean age = 72.14, sd = 8.39). The sample was divided into three groups. The first group consisted of 13 cognitively healthy older adults (HOA), the second of 15 older adults with vascular risk factors (VRF) and the third of older adults diagnosed with ftFTD at an early stage. The last two groups were matched for gender [x2(1) = .279, p > .05], age [t(28) = .561, p > .05] and educational level [x2(2) = .00, p > .05]. This was not possible for the first group, because of the limited number of participants. All participants had at least six years of education and their native language was Hellenic. Furthermore, after they were informed about the aim, the procedure and ethical issues of the study, their written consent was obtained. 2.2 Materials and procedure A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered in order to assess certain cognitive dimensions (functions) to participants. In particular, cognitive control was measured as inhibitory control, task switching and planning, while social cognition was assessed as ToM (evaluating the ability of inference about people’s mental states through the indirect speech perception) and emotion decoding (assessing the recognition ability of six basic emotions or their absence). Two different versions of the battery were generated, where the administration order of tasks differed, so that serial position effects would be compensated. Furthermore, the battery was administered individually with test duration of about three to four hours. Due to the long duration, the neuropsychological assessment was conducted in two sessions or more. 2.3 Statistical analysis Data were analyzed using SPSS v.22. and EQS 6.1. Generalized linear mixed model data analysis was conducted for each task separately in order to compare the performance between the three groups and the performance of the same group among the sub-conditions of each task. In parallel, structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used in order to reveal the pattern of relations among the variables (factors). In particular, path modeling would reveal the direction of these relations. Subsequently, multi-sample path analysis was conducted in order to trace and compare any differentiated patterns of relations between cognitive control and ToM variables for each group. 3. Results-Discussion SPSS statistical analysis revealed a number of significant differences between the VRF and ftFTD groups (there were no significant differences between the HOA and VRF groups). The results regarding cognitive control indicated that ftFTD patients were impaired in comparison to VRF group in the functions of inhibitory control and planning, but not constantly in task switching. In relation to social cognition, the results suggested deficits in ftFTD group in the recognition of honesty and simple sarcasm, emotion recognition (except of the emotion of happiness), but also complex thought (wisdom). Concurrently, path analyses revealed two different patterns of relationships among the variables linked to testing cognitive mechanisms in VRF and ftFTD groups. In particular, concerning the associations between Cc and Tom, it resulted that executive functions directly affected the social inference, as well as the emotion recognition, which in turn has an impact on social inference, denoting a vital role of Cc in relation to ToM performance. However, these interactions were mostly confirmed for the VRF group. On the other hand, only few path models displaying these interactions were confirmed for ftFTD patients, suggesting that the connection between cognitive control and social cognition is significantly impaired during this disease. According to the results of the current study, it seems that ftFTD patients are not able to activate any executive functions during ToM tasks, although these are not fully impaired and are used in other types of cognitive tasks. If this interpretation is valid, the findings may lead to the conclusion that a severe damage of the relative neural circuit (or parts of it) underlies the impaired relationship among Cc and Tom in ftFTD.

References

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Society of Applied Neurosciences Conference 2016

Keywords: cognitive control, social cognition, Theory of Mind, Frontotemporal Dementia, frontal variant, Pattern of relationships

Conference: SAN2016 Meeting, Corfu, Greece, 6 Oct - 9 Oct, 2016.

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation in SAN 2016 Conference

Topic: Oral Presentations

Citation: Morou N, Papaliagkas V, Costa V, Ioannidis P, Papantoniou G and MORAITOU D (2016). A different pattern of interactions between cognitive control and social cognition in the frontal variant of Frontotemporal Dementia in comparison with cognitively intact elderly adults. Conference Abstract: SAN2016 Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2016.220.00008

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Received: 24 Jul 2016; Published Online: 30 Jul 2016.

* Correspondence: Miss. Niki Morou, Aristotitle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, nicky.m@windowslive.com