Neural correlates of altered insight in frontotemporal dementia

My PhD was focused on the search for neural correlates of altered insight in frontotemporal dementia. I combined different insight assessment methods, neuropsychological tests and both structural and functional brain imaging to reach this overarching goal. Although altered insight has attracted a considerable amount of interest in different brain disorders, its neural correlates are underexplored in frontotemporal dementia. Altered insight seems to be conceptually (Figure 1) and neuroanatomically (Figure 2) fractionated in this disease. Broad and specific objects of insight appears to be underpinned by different brain areas (Figure 2). In case you were interested in hearing more about this, please, do not hesitate to have a look into the following I have written under the supervision of Dr Pennington, Dr Thai and Dr Coulthard entitled Neural correlates of altered insight in frontotemporal dementia: a systematic review. This article was part of my PhD project and I must say I owe special thanks to my Supervisors for their guidance, help and support on this effort.

At the moment (22/08/2022), I am attempting to publish the outcomes of my PhD research project by examining the neuroanatomical substrates of broad and specific objects of insight in frontotemporal dementia with the data I have collected at the Bristol Clinical Research Imaging Centre (CRIC Bristol) and in Southmead Hospital. The different insight modalities I am looking into are insight into health condition (broad object), memory and social cognition (specific objects), amongst others. I am also expecting to publish some interesting results on the validity and reliability of different insight assessment methods in dementia.

Have you finally found out which alternative is the correct in the quiz you came across at the presentation of my academic website? Yes, the piece that represents my PhD research project is that one place at the centre of the puzzle!