Emotional and social changes in early frontotemporal dementia
Official title: Emotion network dysfunction and decline in early frontotemporal dementia
Funded at University of California, San Francisco · NIH-11303362 · Data updated 2026-11-12
The team will use wearable sensors and short remote tasks to track emotional reactions and social behavior in people with early or genetic frontotemporal dementia.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Francisco NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (San Francisco, United States) |
| Project start | December 15, 2016 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $785,265 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG052496-10 |
| Project ID | NIH-11303362 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are people with behavioral-variant FTD, people who carry FTD-linked mutations (C9orf72, GRN, MAPT), or those with very mild symptoms.
✕Less likely to help
People with advanced dementia, other non-FTD dementias, or those unable to wear devices or complete remote tasks are unlikely to benefit from participating.
What this research studies
You would wear simple sensors and complete brief remote tasks over multiple days while researchers collect real-world measures of your emotional responses and social behavior. Those remote measures will be compared to lab tests of facial expression, heart and autonomic responses to see which signals match the brain changes seen in FTD. The project follows people over time, including people who carry FTD-related gene changes before symptoms start and those with mild symptoms. The aim is to find practical emotion biomarkers that can be tracked outside the clinic.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could provide easy-to-use remote markers of emotional decline to monitor disease progression or response to future treatments.
How similar studies have gone: Prior lab-based work has shown early autonomic and facial-expression changes in FTD, but multi-day remote monitoring is a newer approach that remains under testing.
Where this research is happening
-
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sturm, Virginia Emily — University of California, San Francisco
- Study coordinator: Sturm, Virginia Emily
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Investigating how DNA damage and repair mechanisms are altered in ALS and frontotemporal dementia.
This study is looking at how problems with DNA repair might contribute to conditions like ALS and frontotemporal dementia, and it’s testing ways to fix these issues in cells from patients to help develop new treatments.
-
Exploring how oxidative stress and ferroptosis affect frontotemporal dementia
A study using human iPSC-derived neurons from people with frontotemporal dementia to see how reactive oxygen species and a cell death process called ferroptosis relate to disease features.
-
Automated language analysis for Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English speakers
A low-cost, automated speech and language analysis tool is being developed to help identify Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English-speaking people.
-
Automated language analysis for Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia across Latino and English-speaking groups
A low-cost, automated language study aims to help diagnose and understand Alzheimer’s and FTD in diverse Spanish- and English-speaking communities.
-
Automated language analysis to help diagnose Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English speakers
A low-cost, computer-based method analyzes speech and language to help identify Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English-speaking people.
-
Automated language analysis for Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English-speaking communities
A low-cost, computer-based language analysis method is being developed to help identify Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia in Latino and English-speaking people.
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.