Apathy in frontotemporal dementia: causes and effects
Official title: Multidimensional Approaches to Understanding Consequences and Mechanisms of Apathy in Frontotemporal Degeneration
Funded at University of Pennsylvania · NIH-11137080 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how problems with motivation, planning, and getting started affect people with behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration and how those problems link to brain network changes.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Pennsylvania NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Philadelphia, United States) |
| Project start | September 30, 2022 |
| Project end | July 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $540,983 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG076832-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11137080 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are people diagnosed with behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration who show noticeable decreases in motivation, planning, or ability to initiate everyday activities.
✕Less likely to help
People without apathy symptoms, those with other types of dementia that do not involve these goal-directed behavior problems, or those unwilling to have brain scans may not receive direct benefit from this project.
What this research studies
From your perspective, the team will measure different parts of goal-directed behavior—like starting tasks, planning, and feeling motivated—and compare these to everyday difficulties you or a loved one experience. They will use brain scans that show activity and connections between regions, along with behavioral tests, to find patterns tied to specific apathy features. The researchers will combine these measures to map large-scale brain networks that may break down in people with bvFTD. The work builds on earlier findings and aims to connect brain network changes directly to the types of apathy that cause the most trouble in daily life.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help doctors identify the specific brain network problems behind a person's apathy and guide more targeted treatments or care strategies.
How similar studies have gone: Prior studies have linked apathy to specific brain regions using structural MRI, but applying a multidimensional, large-scale brain network approach to apathy in bvFTD is a newer direction.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Massimo, Lauren M — University of Pennsylvania
- Study coordinator: Massimo, Lauren M
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.