Face shape and face identity processing in behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia: A specific deficit for familiarity and name recognition of famous faces

François-Laurent De Winter, Dorien Timmers, Beatrice de Gelder, Marc Van Orshoven, Marleen Vieren, Miriam Bouckaert, Gert Cypers, Jo Caekebeke, Laura Van de Vliet, Karolien Goffin, Koen Van Laere, Stefan Sunaert, Rik Vandenberghe, Mathieu Vandenbulcke, Jan Van den Stock*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

185 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Deficits in face processing have been described in the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD), primarily regarding the recognition of facial expressions. Less is known about face shape and face identity processing. Here we used a hierarchical strategy targeting face shape and face identity recognition in bvFTD and matched healthy controls. Participants performed 3 psychophysical experiments targeting face shape detection (Experiment 1), unfamiliar face identity matching (Experiment 2), familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching (Experiment 3). The results revealed group differences only in Experiment 3, with a deficit in the bvFTD group for both familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching. Voxel-based morphometry regression analyses in the bvFTD group revealed an association between grey matter volume of the left ventral anterior temporal lobe and familiarity recognition, while face-name matching correlated with grey matter volume of the bilateral ventral anterior temporal lobes. Subsequently, we quantified familiarity-specific and name-specific recognition deficits as the sum of the celebrities of which respectively only the name or only the familiarity was accurately recognized. Both indices were associated with grey matter volume of the bilateral anterior temporal cortices. These findings extent previous results by documenting the involvement of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in familiarity detection and the right ATL in name recognition deficits in fronto-temporal lobar degeneration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)368-377
Number of pages10
JournalNeuroImage: Clinical
Volume11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • SOCIAL COGNITION
  • EMOTION RECOGNITION
  • ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE
  • LOBAR DEGENERATION
  • SEMANTIC DEMENTIA
  • DEVELOPMENTAL PROSOPAGNOSIA
  • DIAGNOSTIC-CRITERIA
  • MEMORY
  • PATIENT
  • PERCEPTION

Cite this