Frontotemporal dementia has gained significant attention in recent years after the family of actor Bruce Willis announced in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with the condition. A year later, it was revealed that US chat show host Wendy Williams had also been diagnosed with the condition.
Yet despite all this recent attention, there’s still much we don’t know about frontotemporal dementia – including what mechanisms cause certain symptoms, and how we can better spot signs of the disease earlier on. But our research has uncovered the brain processes that underlie one of the disease’s earliest symptoms. This finding brings us one step closer to better diagnosing and treating the condition.
