Background: Social interaction in patients with dementia is compromised by language problems and impairment of other cognitive domains involved in communication.
Aim: To describe language and communication problems in patients with dementia and to provide insight into the neurological basis of these problems.
Method: Our study is based on some of our own research findings and on relevant literature concerning the imaging of language and communication in patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal degeneration.
Results: Imaging revealed that the clinical expression of communicative disorders in patients with cortical neurodegeneration depends on regional brain atrophy and a possible functional reorganisation triggered by neuropathological changes.
Conclusion: Brain imaging increases our knowledge about the pathogenesis of communicative disorders in dementia.