People Who Have Developing Dementia Struggle to Identify Truth, Lies, and Sarcasm [STUDY]

Dementia is a progressive neurological problem that targets cognitive abilities and memories. While a dementia-related condition develops in an individual, certain changes occur in how they think and feel. However, most of these changes are commonly overlooked by an affected person, leading them to miss the symptoms of the illness.

Because of this, experts have tried to identify the most obvious signals that could tell if dementia is developing in a person. Many characteristics and displays have been associated with the condition, but a new hint was observed in many patients. This recent discovery can be noticed by either the affected patient or any people around them during the conversation.

Why Frontotemporal Dementia Patients Have Difficulties on Categorizing Truth, Sarcasm

(Photo: Magda Ehlers from Pexels)

Experts led the study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to get ahold of additional identifiers of dementia. According to the authors, individuals who have developed dementia may become less aware of the social cues when they join any conversation. If this happens, people should seek immediate attention from their specialists, as it could be the first sign that the person in question must undergo a dementia screening at once.

People who have frontotemporal dementia or FTD have challenges categorizing which statements are lies and sarcasm during a conversation. The authors tested the theory with the help of 175 older adults. Half of the group had various types of neurodegeneration developments, including FTD.

During the experiments, each subject was required to watch a video in which speakers relay lies and sarcasm. The speakers also used several verbal and non-verbal cues to add up a bit of confusion to their participants. A questionnaire with 'yes or no' questions about the videos was then provided to the individuals.

In the examination, the scholars found that people with dementia had a very difficult experience analyzing the scale of sincerity during speech. The results were significantly lower than the older adults who are neurologically healthy.

FTD patients were the participants that struggled the most during the experiment. BestLife reported that people with other types of dementia, like Alzheimer's disease, had a better result than the FTD-affected.

The brain's frontal lobe holds at least two-thirds of the overall control of human cognition, motor function, behavior, memory, personality, language, and more. The functions inside the frontal lobe work altogether if a person is working to discern truths and lies presented to them.

When a person develops FTD, the frontal lobe is most likely to degenerate, causing neurons and other proteins to damage or die. According to UCSF experts, the degeneration manifesting in FTD patients could impair regulation of personal conduct, may affect interpersonal behavior, decrease social awareness, trigger loss of insights, and increase emotional apathy.

ALSO READ: Better Sleeping Experience Could Improve How We Remember Names and Faces

Dementia and Abuse

In conclusion, those who have active or developing dementia could severely impair their communication and social skills. Unfortunately, patients who suffer from the disease are usually abused, exposed to scams and other manipulation tactics simply because of the lack of ability in analyzing facts, truth, lies, and even sarcasm.

The experts said that this problem had already caught the attention of specialists and doctors of dementia patients, as they observed that the individuals commonly lose a lot of money from random scams physically or online just because they have blind trust.

What's best is that upon recognizing this bizarre symptom, patients or their loved ones should seek advice from their medical experts to treat and regulate the condition conveniently and in the best way possible. The study was published in the journal Cortex, titled "Comprehension of insincere communication in neurodegenerative disease: Lies, sarcasm, and theory of mind."