Aims

This programme will investigate pathophysiological mechanisms of disordered information processing in dementia using the paradigm of complex sound. It will integrate complementary fMRI, structural MRI, and behavioural (psychoacoustic) measures in clinically, radiologically and genetically-defined populations with the most common cortical degenerative dementias, Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and in age-matched healthy controls. Mechanisms of elementary auditory pattern analysis will be probed using fMRI, and brain activation profiles will be correlated cross-sectionally and serially with psychoacoustic and other behavioural measures of complex sound processing and with structural MRI. By comparing structural with functional imaging data, and imaging data with behaviour, it will be possible to assess these complementary techniques in relation to one another and in combination. The correlation of complementary disease measures will determine how pathophysiology maps onto structural damage, whether regional brain dysfunction predicts the rate and distribution