Caudate nucleus and social cognition: Neuropsychological and SPECT evidence from a patient with focal caudate lesion

Kemp, Jennifer; Berthel, Marie-Camille; Dufour, André; Després, Olivier; Henry, Audrey; Namer, Izzie Jacques; Musacchio, M.; Sellal, François

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2012.01.004

Cited by 50 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(91 reference statements)

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“…Surprisingly, the possible influence of attention and cognitive shift attributed to the cholinergic system and the striatum on social behavior was never thoroughly tested. Nevertheless, a recent study in human reported on loss of empathy and emotion recognition following focal caudate nucleus lesion (Kemp et al, 2013). We found that Donepezil microinjection into the DMS, but not VMS, positively affected social interaction and preference.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Acetylcholine Elevation Relieves Cognitive Rigidity and Social Deficiency in a Mouse Model of Autism

Karvat

Kimchi

2013

Neuropsychopharmacol

153

136

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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are defined by behavioral deficits in social interaction and communication, repetitive stereotyped behaviors, and restricted interests/cognitive rigidity. Recent studies in humans and animal-models suggest that dysfunction of the cholinergic system may underlie autism-related behavioral symptoms. Here we tested the hypothesis that augmentation of acetylcholine (ACh) in the synaptic cleft by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase may ameliorate autistic phenotypes. We first administered the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) Donepezil systemically by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections. Second, the drug was injected directly into the rodent homolog of the caudate nucleus, the dorsomedial striatum (DMS), of the inbred mouse strain BTBR T þ tf/J (BTBR), a commonly-used model presenting all core autism-related phenotypes and expressing low brain ACh levels. We found that i.p. injection of AChEI to BTBR mice significantly relieved autism-relevant phenotypes, including decreasing cognitive rigidity, improving social preference, and enhancing social interaction, in a dose-dependent manner. Microinjection of the drug directly into the DMS, but not into the ventromedial striatum, led to significant amelioration of the cognitive-rigidity and social-deficiency phenotypes. Taken together, these findings provide evidence of the key role of the cholinergic system and the DMS in the etiology of ASD, and suggest that elevated cognitive flexibility may result in enhanced social attention. The potential therapeutic effect of AChEIs in ASD patients is discussed.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

Acetylcholine Elevation Relieves Cognitive Rigidity and Social Deficiency in a Mouse Model of Autism

Karvat

Kimchi

2013

Neuropsychopharmacol

153

136

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“…24 Recently, the caudate nucleus has been linked to key ToM skills, such as empathy and interpretation of others' emotions. 25 Caudate nucleus pathology in ALS has been previously reported by postmortem studies, but with the exception of fMRI studies, 11,26 this structure is seldom studied specifically in imaging studies, despite its role in learning, memory, and feed-back processing. The head of caudate is thought to have an important role in feedback processing, while the body and tail are associated with successful classification learning.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basal ganglia involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

et al. 2013

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ALS is associated with widespread basal ganglia involvement. Caudate nucleus, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens atrophy are key features of ALS. Dysfunction of frontostriatal networks is likely to contribute to the unique neuropsychological profile of ALS, dominated by executive dysfunction, apathy, and deficits in social cognition. Our quantitative imaging findings are consistent with postmortem studies and indicate that subcortical gray matter structures should be included in future biomarker studies of ALS.

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“…All these structures were described to make contribution to social cognition and social information processing (Jacobson, 1986;Adolphs et al, 1998Adolphs et al, , 1999Adolphs et al, , 2005Shaw et al, 2004;Pessoa, 2008Pessoa, , 2011Adolphs, 2010a,b;Bodden et al, 2010a,b;Pessoa and Adolphs, 2010;Kemp et al, 2012;Nguyen et al, 2013;Saalmann and Kastner, 2013). Furthermore, several of these structures were reported to be affected in various memory disorders (Zingerle, 1912;Schuster, 1936;Smyth and Stern, 1938;Stern, 1939;Guard et al, 1986;Kuljis, 1994;Mori et al, 1999;Siebert et al, 2003;Allen et al, 2006).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the picture story for affect induction (BAd), his performance showed only a marginal benefit from the enhancing effect of emotional connotation. From a neurobiological perspective, ML's difficulties with emotional processing may be related to his gray matter reductions in hippocampal formation (with an anterior preponderance; Fanselow and Dong, 2010;Viard et al, 2012), and/or possible amygdala, basal ganglia (caudate), and pulvinar dysfunctions (Adolphs, 2010b;Markowitsch and Staniloiu, 2011b;Geschwind et al, 2012;Kemp et al, 2012;Nguyen et al, 2013;Saalmann and Kastner, 2013). Performance on affect-related memory tasks had been found to be impaired in patients with bilateral amygdala calcifications due to a genetic disorder (Urbach-Wiethe disease), compared to normal participants (Sarter and Markowitsch, 1985a,b;Cahill et al, 1995;Siebert et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results are consistent with largely preserved core ToM functions: however, our findings are slightly different from those of who reported normal performance on standardized tests for ToM in an adult woman with developmental amnesia. There are several factors that may account for the observed differences, such as the use of different test adaptations (e.g., the German adaptation of the RMET) and the presence of neural correlates' and sex differences (Schulte-Rüther et al, 2008;Frank, 2012;Kemp et al, 2012;Nguyen et al, 2013;Saalmann and Kastner, 2013). In particular, the imaging study of Frank (2012) found that young men recruit during a false belief task more brain regions known to be implicated in episodic memory than young women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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1741 – Social cognition in a case of amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms

Markowitsch

Borsutzky

Staniloiu

2013

European Psychiatry

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Episodic-autobiographical memory (EAM) is considered to emerge gradually in concert with the development of other cognitive abilities (such as executive functions, personal semantic knowledge, emotional knowledge, theory of mind (ToM) functions, language, and working memory). On the brain level its emergence is accompanied by structural and functional reorganization of different components of the so-called EAM network. This network includes the hippocampal formation, which is viewed as being vital for the acquisition of memories of personal events for long-term storage. Developmental studies have emphasized socio-cultural-linguistic mechanisms that may be unique to the development of EAM. Furthermore it was hypothesized that one of the main functions of EAM is the social one. In the research field, the link between EAM and social cognition remains however debated. Herein we aim to bring new insights into the relation between EAM and social information processing (including social cognition) by describing a young adult patient with amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms due to perinatal complications accompanied by hypoxia. The patient was investigated medically, psychiatrically, and with neuropsychological and neuroimaging methods. Structural high resolution magnetic resonance imaging revealed significant bilateral hippocampal atrophy as well as indices for degeneration in the amygdalae, basal ganglia, and thalamus, when a less conservative threshold was applied. In addition to extensive memory investigations and testing other (non-social) cognitive functions, we employed a broad range of tests that assessed social information processing (social perception, social cognition, social regulation). Our results point to both preserved (empathy, core ToM functions, visual affect selection, and discrimination, affective prosody discrimination) and impaired domains of social information processing (incongruent affective prosody processing, complex social judgments). They support proposals for a role of the hippocampal formation in processing more complex social information that likely requires multimodal relational handling.

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Caudate nucleus and social cognition: Neuropsychological and SPECT evidence from a patient with focal caudate lesion

Cited by 50 publications

References 93 publications

Acetylcholine Elevation Relieves Cognitive Rigidity and Social Deficiency in a Mouse Model of Autism

Acetylcholine Elevation Relieves Cognitive Rigidity and Social Deficiency in a Mouse Model of Autism

Basal ganglia involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

1741 – Social cognition in a case of amnesia with neurodevelopmental mechanisms

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