UC Berkeley

This study explores diagnostic differences and neural correlates of emotional language use among neurodegenerative disease groups and healthy controls. Using data from 10-minute dyadic conversations, this study examines how individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), and healthy controls differ in the use of emotional language. Text analysis was used to explore diagnostic group differences in emotional language use, and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to explore the neural correlates of emotional language use. Findings suggest distinct patterns of emotional language use across groups, with patients with AD and svPPA using less total emotional language, patients with bvFTD showing increased negative emotional language use, and patients with svPPA showing increased positive emotional language. Neuroanatomical findings indicate that total emotional language use was significantly associated with diminished gray matter volume in the left superior temporal gyrus. Other areas that did not survive corrections for multiple comparisons included lateral temporal regions (right superior temporal gyrus, the bilateral middle temporal gyri, and the left inferior temporal gyrus) and left inferior frontal gyrus, regions associated with generating emotion states, emotion regulation, and semantic processing. This research underscores the potential value of emotional language as a diagnostic tool and provides insights into the underlying brain structures associated with emotional language in neurodegenerative diseases. The implications of these findings are important for both clinical diagnosis and caregiver interventions.