Researchers have found how frontotemporal dementia (FTD) fundamentally alters a person’s capacity for empathy, revealing new insights into a condition that can strike people as young as 40.
The new Swedish study, published Dec. 3 in JAMA Network Open, suggests that patients with FTD, a progressive brain disorder affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which are areas crucial for personality, behavior, and language, display distinct brain activity patterns when observing the pain of others. This differentiation sets them apart from healthy individuals.
