symptoms Warning Sign: Inability to Detect Sarcasm and Lies A recent study pinpoints a correlation between an inability to sense sarcasm and lies, and early stages of frontotemporal dementia. July 02, 2015 Written By: Dementia.org Published On July 02, 2015 A new study carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, shows that losing the ability to identify sarcasm and lies is an early indication of frontotemporal dementia. While doctors have long recognized that people with this form of dementia lose the capacity to recognize insincerity—they are often easy prey for con artists and scams, for instance—this is the first study to show that a lack of this ability correlates to early changes in the brain. Please Read This: Detect Alzheimer's Risk 25 Years In Advance Lies And The Aging Brain Participants in the study viewed videos of two actors talking with each other. One of the actors frequently lied or used sarcasm in ways that were obvious based on context and nonverbal cues. After watching the videos, the participants were asked a series of yes or no questions about the moments in the videos when lies were told or sarcastic statements were made. Of the 175 older adults who participated in the study, more than half of them had some sort of dementia. The healthy adults had no trouble detecting insincere speech, but people with frontotemporal dementia consistently failed to notice it. People with other forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease and supranuclear palsy, performed better. In normal aging without neurodegeneration, the ability to discern between sincere and insincere communication does not deteriorate. Researchers then created detailed MRIs of the participants' brains and found that those who could not detect lies had lesions in the brain's frontal lobes. In frontotemporal dementia, this part of the brain degenerates due to neuron death and the buildup of damaged proteins called tau. You Might Like This: Should I See A Psychiatrist, Or A Neurologist? Doctors may be able to use this correlation between extreme gullibility and brain degeneration to identify patients with frontotemporal dementia in the early stages of the disease. Early diagnosis is vital so that proper treatment and support can be provided. The study's senior researcher, neuropsychologist Katherine Rankin, and her colleague from the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Tal Shany-Ur, presented the results of the study at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Frontotemporal Dementia Frontotemporal dementia is the most common form of dementia in adults under the age of 60. There are three distinct varieties of this disease. In the early stages, people tend to undergo extreme personality changes or exhibit inappropriate behaviors. Frequently, these early symptoms are misinterpreted as the evidence of a severe midlife crisis or depression. As the disease progresses, however, frontotemporal dementia robs sufferers of the capacities to empathize, reason, and communicate. Patients lose the ability to carry out both the complex activities of daily life—handling money or behaving in socially appropriate ways—and the simplest activities—such as eating and bathing. This study offers important new insights into the earliest warning signs of this devastating condition.0667 Recommended Articles causes Dementia From Toxic Substances causes Dementia From Oxygen Deprivation stages of dementia End Stage Of Dementia causes Depression And Dementia memory loss Coping With The Loss Of Your Loved One's Memory Most Searched Types Alzheimer's Huntington's Disease Parkinson's Disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Early-Onset Dementia Tags: symptoms research Learn More: Dementia From Oxygen Deprivation The Best Foods For Dementia Patients Dementia From Toxic Substances Dementia Grief – What Makes It Unique? End Stage Of Dementia The Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE)