[BIC-announce] FW: Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience: Thursday, April 26th - ROOM CHANGE (BELL ROOM)

[Jennifer Chew, Ms.]

**ROOM CHANGE TO BELL ROOM**

 
Sarah J. Banks


Ph.D. Candidate in Clinical Neuropsychology,


Northwestern University 


Feinberg School of Medicine, 


Chicago Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center 


 

 

Loss of Insight in Frontotemporal Dementia and Primary Progressive
Aphasia

 

 


Thursday, April 26th, 2007


Bell room 


3801 University Street


1:30 p.m.

 

Host: Marilyn Jones-Gotman

 

 

 

 

Abstract:

Loss of insight into symptoms of a disease, or anosognosia, has been of
interest in neurology since the 1800s.  Anosognosia is often associated
with hemiplegia following right hemisphere stroke, with Anton's
syndrome, and with Wernicke's aphasia.  Recently, researchers have
investigated this phenomenon in dementia.  Studies of anosognosia in
Alzheimer's disease have revealed certain disease characteristics and
anatomic specificity associated with reduced insight that may be
applicable to dementia caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration
(FTLD).  Dementias caused by FTLD include frontotemporal dementia (FTD),
which involves a breakdown in comportment, and primary progressive
aphasia (PPA), which causes a gradual loss of language abilities.
Whereas loss of insight is an early symptom of FTD, patients with PPA
appear to have more intact insight in the early stages of their disease.
Little is known about how insight changes with disease progression in
PPA.  This talk will include discussion of three studies of anosognosia
in FTD and PPA.  The studies incorporate quantification of loss of
insight, characterization in terms of symptom specificity,
self-awareness and self-monitoring of symptoms, and cognitive,
neuropsychiatric and disease-severity correlates of loss of insight.