Clinical studies report abnormal socioemotional behavior in patients with right frontotemporal disease, but neuroimaging studies of socioemotional behavior usually show bilateral activations in normal subjects. This discrepancy suggests that impaired interhemispheric collaboration for socioemotional functions results from asymmetric frontotemporal disease. Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) can clarify the contribution of direction-independent frontotemporal asymmetry. In a two-part study, we evaluated bvFTD patients using socioemotional scales and magnetic and resonance imaging measures. Part A compared 18 patients on scales of social dysfunction and emotional intelligence with degree of asymmetry in frontal lobe volumes and analyzed differences between lower and higher asymmetry groups. Part B compared 24 patients on scales of social observation and emotional blunting with degree of asymmetry in frontotemporal cortical thickness using multiple linear regression. Both results showed that left or right hemispheric-specific contributions did not account for all socioemotional differences and that frontal lobe and frontotemporal differences in atrophy between the hemispheres accounted for significant variance in abnormalities in social and emotional behavior. These preliminary results indicate that the degree of frontal lobe and frontotemporal asymmetric involvement, regardless of direction or laterality, significantly contribute to socioemotional dysfunction and support the hypothesis that interhemispheric collaboration is important for complex socioemotional behavior.

中文翻译：

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社会情绪行为中的额颞不对称：额颞痴呆的初步研究。

临床研究报告了右额颞叶疾病患者的社交情绪行为异常，但是对社交情绪行为的神经影像学研究通常显示正常受试者的双侧活动。这种差异表明，不对称的额颞部疾病导致社会情感功能的跨半球协作受损。行为变异额颞痴呆（bvFTD）可以阐明方向无关的额颞不对称的贡献。在一项由两部分组成的研究中，我们使用社会情感量表和磁共振成像技术评估了bvFTD患者。A部分对18名患者的社交功能障碍和情绪智力水平与额叶体积的不对称程度进行了比较，并分析了较低和较高不对称组之间的差异。B部分使用多元线性回归比较了24例患者的社会观察和情绪钝化程度与额颞叶皮质厚度的不对称程度。两项结果均表明，左半球或右半球的特定贡献并不能解决所有的社会情感差异，并且半球之间的额叶和额颞叶萎缩差异是社交和情感行为异常的显着差异。这些初步结果表明，额叶和额颞不对称受累程度，无论方向或侧向如何，均会严重影响社会情感功能障碍，并支持以下假设：半球间协作对于复杂的社会情感行为很重要。