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Establishing links between abnormal eating behaviours and semantic deficits in dementia
Author(s) -
Vignando Miriam,
Rumiati Raffaella Ida,
Manganotti Paolo,
Cattaruzza Tatiana,
Aiello Marilena
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of neuropsychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1748-6653
pISSN - 1748-6645
DOI - 10.1111/jnp.12195
Subject(s) - semantic dementia , uncinate fasciculus , psychology , frontotemporal dementia , dementia , cingulum (brain) , white matter , primary progressive aphasia , arcuate fasciculus , frontotemporal lobar degeneration , diffusion mri , inferior longitudinal fasciculus , pathological , atrophy , temporal lobe , audiology , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , fractional anisotropy , disease , pathology , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , epilepsy
The hypothesis that semantic deficits in dementia may contribute in producing changes in eating preferences has never been experimentally investigated despite this association has been clinically observed. We administered tasks assessing semantic memory and the Appetite and Eating Habits Questionnaire (APEHQ) to 23 patients with dementia (behavioural frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasia, and Alzheimer’s disease) and to 21 healthy controls. We used voxel‐based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging to identify regions and white matter tracts of significant atrophy associated with the performance at the semantic tasks and the pathological scores at the APEHQ. We observed that the lower the patients’ scores at semantic tasks, the higher their changes in eating habits and preferences. Both semantic disorders and eating alterations correlated with atrophy in the temporal lobes and white matter tracts connecting the temporal lobe with frontal regions such as the arcuate fasciculus, the cingulum, and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus. These results confirm that semantic deficits underlie specific eating alterations in dementia patients.