Dementia normally is associated with advancing age. But frontotemporal dementia often strikes in middle age. It is lesser known than Alzheimer's, but causes at least one in four cases of early-onset dementia. And with even the youngest baby boomers approaching 50, the disease is likely to become more widespread.
Researchers throughout UC are actively studying the brain disorder with hopes of finding a cause and a cure. UCSF neurologist William Seeley has just been named a MacArthur Foundation fellow for his research on frontotemporal dementia and other human neurodegenerative disease. (Watch a UCTV video featuring Seeley and other neurologists discussing their research on dementia.)
Current issues of Neuron feature additional work by UC scientists. Daniel Geschwind and colleagues at UCLA have pinpointed a key signaling pathway that plays an important role in the disorder, featured in the Sept. 22 issue. Meanwhile, researchers at UC San Francisco and UCLA participated in a study (featured in the Sept. 21 issue of Neuron) that finds a genetic mutation common to both Lou Gehrig's disease and frontotemporal dementia.
Researchers at UCSF have studied specific hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases like FTD, such as the inability to detect sarcasm and lies.
Recent reports on Science Today have featured UC research on FTD: