Objective: To determine whether basal ganglia atrophy, known to be associated with apathy in nondementia populations, was associated with presence of apathy in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Methods: A cross-sectional case study was conducted at two tertiary dementia care clinics in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Striatal and thalamic gray matter volumes and apathy measures were collected from 21 subjects with FTD, 6 of whom did not show apathy on the Neuropsychiatric Inventory.
Results: No significant differences in gray matter volumes were found between apathetic and nonapathetic groups for the striatum or the thalamus.
Conclusions: Our findings imply that the etiology of apathy seen in patients with FTD differs from that of patients with apathy after acquired injuries to the basal ganglia. Further study is needed to determine whether posterior thalamic atrophy correlates with apathy in FTD or functional imaging techniques might successfully find a relationship between basal ganglia dysfunction and apathy.