IMPAIRED REASONING &SOCIAL JUDGE IN FRONTOTEMPORAL LOBAR DEGEN IN ALS

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) in patients with ALS appears to be common, with an incidence approaching 50 percent. Many studies have identified impaired frontal cortical mediated letter fluency as a marker of FTLD in ALS, considering impaired letter fluency to be the result of an acquired deficit in self-monitoring during the word retrieval process (Abrahams et al., 2000). However, few studies had examined the relationship between ALS and self-monitoring on a more comprehensive level. We hypothesized that the FTLD associated with ALS would result in an acquired deficiency in social judgment, due to a diminished capacity for self-monitoring during the process of verbal problem solving.