Fronto-Temporal Dementia

I was on my break today when I came across this news article relating to Fronto-Temporal Dementia;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8513110.stm

Fronto-temporal dementia is a term that relates to many different types of dementia, for example; Pick's Disease/PiD, and is also associated with Motor Neurone Disease. These are all caused by damage to the frontal and/or temporal lobes of the brain.

The Frontal lobe (conscious thought/mood changes) reaches "full maturity" in it's 20's, this is due to increased levels of myelin. Poorly myelinated connections in this part of the brain has been associated with young adult Schizophrenia (Arthur Toga). It is also known to have the highest number of dopamine-sensitive neurons (neurotransmitter and neurohormone), a depletion of which is generally found in Parkinson's disease and Autism. The Temporal lobe (Smell/sound/processing of complex stimuli) is associated with long-term memory due to the Hippocampus (located in the medial-temporal lobes), and auditory processing through the Wernicke's area which is linked to Broca's area in the Frontal lobe (inferior frontal gyrus).

Fronto-temporal dementia is a rare form of dementia which is found to be more prevalent in males, particularly those under 65 years of age. This form of dementia is a little bit surreal as far as the definition of dementia goes as many people merely associate it with memory loss, this condition changes a person's whole persona without harming memories. The Cambridge team in the news report found a mutation on chromosome 7 which could affect the protein gene coding.

Finding a gene mutation which causes Fronto-temporal dementia opens so many doors; identifying those at higher risk, prevention, a cure perhaps. A cure for diseases associated with this one even. Exciting news! Also gave me chance to research a bit of it, hence the highlighted parts of this - and please, if anyone reads this that is more clued up and wishes to enlighten me on this then drop me a comment or email!