Susceptibility to visual hallucinations in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia spectrum: The role of dysfunctional attentional networks

Abstract

Psychotic symptoms are well established across the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD) spectrum and contribute to patient and carer distress and poorer prognosis. However, there are no objective tools to probe these symptoms and the underlying functional neurobiology has been unexplored to date. Leveraging clinical interview, neuropsychological testing, and a validated behavioural paradigm of visual misperception combined with connectome-wide fMRI analysis, we directly probed visual hallucinatory tendencies and the associated cognitive and functional connectivity signatures in ALS-FTD. In 82 participants across the ALS-FTD spectrum (24 ALS patients, 7 ALS-FTD, 31 ..