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Symposium Preview: Meet the ALS/FTD Plenary Speakers…Part 1

Symposium Preview: Meet the ALS/FTD Plenary Speakers…Part 1

Reading Time: 5 minutes Every year, the team works hard to build on the previous year’s success. This year we are excited to include a series of three ALS-FTD joint sessions, in collaboration with the International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias, in the programme.

Some people with ALS, the most common form of MND, also develop a form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD). FTD is a group of disorders where the nerve cells in two sets of lobes (frontal and temporal) in the brain are damaged. In a similar way to how motor neurones break down in MND and cause loss of function in muscles, the damage to the nerve cells in FTD causes the connections between parts of the brain to break down. As more cells become damaged and die this can lead to symptoms such as problems with memory, thinking or language, changes in mood, emotions and behaviour.

Cognitive Change and MND

Reading Time: 3 minutes In addition to the muscle weakness and wasting, MND also presents with non-motor symptoms, one of the most common being cognitive change. Research has already shown that changes can occur to the nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobe areas of the brain. These are the two areas which are responsible for controlling thinking, reasoning…

Is MND/FTD the same as FTD alone?

Reading Time: 3 minutes Association-funded researcher, Prof Julie Snowden from the University of Manchester was invited to present her research on MND and frontotemporal dementia at this year’s 25th International Symposium on ALS/MND. She is asking whether people living with MND and frontotemporal dementia develop a different form of dementia that is different to those with frontotemporal dementia alone.…

Toxic proteins may cause motor neurones to die in C9orf72 MND

Reading Time: 4 minutes MND Association and Alzheimer’s Research UK-funded researchers from University College London have identified that toxic proteins may cause motor neurones to die in C9orf72 MND and frontotemporal dementia. Published open access in the journal Science on Thursday 7 August, this research explains more about one of the most common forms of inherited MND.

Postcard from Australia

Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Emma Devenney is an MND Association and Neuroscience Research Australia funded PhD student investigating the Cerebellum in MND and Frontotemporal Dementia at Neuroscience Research Australia. She is finding out what role it plays in the symptoms of patients with the C9orf72 mutation. Here she blogs about her work from Australia! Finally after more than 12…

Screening for Cognitive and Behavioural Change in MND

Reading Time: 3 minutes MND Association-funded researcher Dr Sharon Abrahams (University of Edinburgh) has recently published an article on the Edinburgh Cognitive ALS Screen (ECAS) in the prestigious journal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration. It is now recognised that, in up to 50% of people living with MND not only the motor system (walking, talking breathing etc) but also…