Frontotemporal dementia selectively impairs transitive reasoning about familiar spatial environments.

Full Abstract

Although patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are known to exhibit a wide range of cognitive and personality difficulties, some evidence suggests that there may be a degree of selectivity in their reasoning impairments. Based on a recent review of the neuroimaging literature on reasoning, the authors hypothesized that the presence or absence of familiar content may have a selective impact on the reasoning abilities of patients with FTD. Specifically, the authors predicted that patients with frontal-variant FTD would be more impaired when reasoning about transitive arguments involving familiar spatial environments than when reasoning about identical logical arguments involving unfamiliar spatial environments. As predicted, patients with FTD were less accurate than normal controls only when the content of arguments involved familiar spatial environments. These results indicate a degree of selectivity in the cognitive deficits of this patient population and suggest that the frontal-temporal lobe system may play a necessary role in reasoning about familiar material.

Author information

Author/s: Vartanian, Oshin (O); Goel, Vinod (V); Tierney, Michael (M); Huey, Edward D (ED); Grafman, Jordan (J);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. oshinv1(-atsign-)mac.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuropsychology (Neuropsychology), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 23 (issue 5) : pp 619-26

Dates: Created 2009/08/25; Completed 2009/10/16;

PMID: 19702415, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/16/2009, IMS Date: )

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