MINI REVIEW article
Front. Aging Neurosci.
Sec. Neurocognitive Aging and Behavior
Volume 17 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1633309
This article is part of the Research TopicPreserving Emotional Health in Aging: Unraveling the Neural Mechanisms and Implications for Neurodegenerative DiseasesView all 4 articles
Seeking the neural basis of neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia: Neuroimaging findings and controversies
Provisionally accepted
- Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato, Japan
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The biological basis of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in individuals who have dementia is poorly understood, despite the significant burden on patients, caregivers, and communities. Recent neuroimaging advances have provided reliable and less-invasive methods to investigate human brains in vivo. However, compared to the significant progress that has been made in the fields of diagnostic values and cognitive symptoms in dementia, the neuroimaging findings of NPS are less consistent, particularly in terms of the affected brain regions. This discrepancy may be due to differences in neuroimaging modalities or analytical methods, the fact that NPS can change over time, and/or the subjective nature of NPS assessments. In this narrative review, we summarize the extant literature on neuroimaging findings of NPS in dementia. We also discuss both the controversies and potential solutions to overcome the current problems.
Keywords: Neuropsychiatric symptoms, Behavioral psychological symptoms in dementia, Dementia, Neuroimaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, positron emission tomography
Received: 22 May 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sone and Shinagawa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Daichi Sone, Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato, Japan
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