Social Cognition in Ageing and in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

Social Cognition in Ageing and in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (Frontotemporal Dementia and Semantic Dementia): a Cognitive and Neuroimaging Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the age and the neurodegenerative disease effects on social cognition. Secondary goals are to better understand the relationships between different component of social cognition, executive functioning, and behavior and describing the neuronal substrates associated to the alteration of the social cognition in ageing and dementia.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All the participants

  • Age between 40 and 80 years
  • Minimum of 7 years of education
  • French native speaker

• Healthy subjects

  • Non pathological Dementia rating scale score

• Patients

  • Clinical diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Exclusion Criteria:

• Chronic neurological disease
• Encephalitis
• Endocrinal disease
• Hepatic disease
• Case history of head injury with loss of consciousness of more than one hour
• Case history of stroke
• Case history of cancer during the five last years except squamous cell carcinomas
• Alcoholism or drug addiction
• Major psychiatric disorders according the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders