Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30488224›Full record

ArticleCognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience2019

Facial expressiveness and physiological arousal in frontotemporal dementia: Phenotypic clinical profiles and neural correlates.

Fiona Kumfor, Jessica L Hazelton, Jacqueline A Rushby, John R Hodges, Olivier Piguet

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
36citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

36 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Disrupted emotion-memory interactions in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026
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  6. Review
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  11. Gaps in clinical research in frontotemporal dementia: A call for diversity and disparities-focused research.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2023
    Article
  12. Review
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Altered reward processing underpins emotional apathy in dementia.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2023
    Article
  17. Temporopolar regions of the human brain.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Fiona KumforSchool of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. fiona.kumfor@sydney.edu.au.
Jessica L HazeltonSchool of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Jacqueline A RushbySchool of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
John R HodgesBrain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, 94 Mallett St, Level 3 M02F, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW, 2050, Australia.
Olivier PiguetSchool of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Early theories of emotion processing propose an interplay between autonomic function and cognitive appraisal of emotions. Patients with frontotemporal dementia show profound social cognition deficits and atrophy in regions implicated in autonomic emotional responses (insula, amygdala, prefrontal cortex), yet objective measures of facial expressiveness and physiological arousal have been relatively unexplored. We investigated psychophysiological responses (surface facial electromyography (EMG); skin conductance level (SCL)) to emotional stimuli in 25 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, 14 semantic dementia (SD) patients, and 24 healthy older controls, while viewing emotionally positive, neutral, or negative video clips. Voxel-based morphometry was conducted to identify neural correlates of responses. Unlike controls, patients with bvFTD did not show differential facial EMG responses according to emotion condition, whereas SD patients showed increased zygomaticus responses to both positive and neutral videos. Controls showed greater arousal (SCL) when viewing positive and negative videos; however, both bvFTD and SD groups showed no change in SCL across conditions. Regardless of group membership, right insula damage was associated with dampened zygomaticus responses to positive film stimuli. Change in arousal (SCL) was associated with lower integrity of the caudate, amygdala, and temporal pole. Our results demonstrate that while bvFTD patients show an overall dampening of responses, SD patients appear to show incongruous facial emotional expressions. Abnormal responding is related to cortical and subcortical brain atrophy. These results identify potential mechanisms for the abnormal social behaviour in bvFTD and SD and demonstrate that psychophysiological responses are an important mechanism underpinning normal socioemotional functioning.

Indexed as

Facial ExpressionSocial BehaviorAgedAmygdalaBrain MappingEmotionsFaceFemaleFrontotemporal DementiaHumansMagnetic Resonance ImagingMaleMiddle AgedNeuropsychological TestsElectromyographyImagingSemantic dementiaSkin conductance

Identifiers

PMID30488224

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.