This is really important, discovering that certain social behaviors are affected by brain disease. Miller says further study is underway to look at families that have more than one member with frontotemporal dementia. With almost half of these patients, another close relative, like a sibling or parent, also has the disease. And new research has pointed to the mutation of a specific gene, called tau, or chromosome 17q21-22, as a possible cause of the disease in these instances. That could lead to new treatments within the next decade, Miller says, with medicines targeting sites in the right frontal lobe.
Social behavior is very eloquent.
As a matter of fact, many psychiatric disorders could be looked at in a new light now that research is finding personality originates in a specific part of the brain, he adds. Thinking about the anatomy of the self is very exciting. McVeigh is to be executed May 16 in the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. What To Do For more on frontotemporal dementia, visit the Family Caregiver Alliance or the Alzheimer Society of Canada . Or, take a look at these HealthScout stories for more on dementia .