The Brain Behaviour Group (BBG) Publications
Publications are the main way that researchers communicate their findings to other members of the scientific community. This page provides a list of scientific publications from the Brain Behaviour Group in reverse chronological order. To make our research more accessible, we have included lay summaries of papers intended for a general audience. This is still a work in progress. Summaries of papers from 2024 were written by PhD Student, Lucy Core, and edited by other members of the BBG. Summaries of papers from 2025 onwards will be written by the first author of the paper.
Our research group primarily works with people living with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and primary progressive aphasia. A basic understanding of the different dementia subtypes is helpful for understanding these lay summaries. Please see a brief overview below:

We refer you to here for more information about the different types of dementia.
Please note that this research is not meant to provide medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider with any specific queries.
Thank you for your interest in our research!
Recent Publications
2024
Jiang et al. 2024. Comprehension of acoustically degraded emotional prosody in Alzheimer's disease and primary progressive aphasia. Scientific Reports. 14: 31332.
To gain full insights into a speaker's communicative intent, we need to understand the nonverbal auditory information that accompanies speech. Emotional prosody is particularly important in signalling emotion. Past research has largely focussed on comprehending emotional prosody in 'clear' auditory environments - however, this unlikely reflects the reality of communication in daily life, where speech is often 'degraded' in quality or masked by noise / competing signals. This research study looks at comprehending degraded emotional prosody in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The results showed that:
- All patient groups were worse than healthy volunteers at identifying emotional prosody, and this was exacerbated in degraded listening conditions.
- The performance on comprehending emotional prosody was linked with social cognition (how people think about and interact with others in their social environment)
These findings provide us with a window into real-world emotional communication that is often overlooked in AD and PPA. The method developed here could be used to assess real-world communicative difficulties and social cognition.
Mazzeo et al. 2024. Primary progressive aphasia in Italian and English: A cross-linguistic cohort study. Neurology. 103: e210058.
There are many differences across the world’s languages. Therefore, the symptoms of primary progressive (PPA) might be different in different languages. This research study compared symptoms in patients with the semantic (svPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), nonfluent (lvPPA), and non-specific (PPA-NOS) variants who spoke English vs. Italian. The results showed that:
- There was a higher percentage of Italian PPA patients who had difficulties with producing grammatically correct speech
- There were more English PPA patients who had trouble understanding single words.
- There was also a higher prevalence of patients with (PPA-NOS) in the Italian cohort.
These findings highlight the need for PPA research that spans multiple languages since language differences may affect diagnosis and symptom management.
Jiang et al. 2024. Preserved musical working memory and absolute pitch in posterior cortical atrophy. Cortex. 181:1-11.
This paper is a case study which focused on a single person with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), which is a type of Alzheimer’s disease characterised by vision problems. This person was a highly trained musician with absolute pitch, which is the uncommon ability to name a musical note without the help of a reference note. The researchers found that:
- This person retained their absolute pitch abilities after the onset of their PCA symptoms.
- When asked to listen to sequences of musical notes and then sing exactly what they heard (a measure of musical working memory), they performed just as well as other older musicians without dementia.
- However, when asked to listen to strings of numbers and repeat them (a measure of verbal working memory), they struggled.
These results indicate that different types of working memory (e.g., musical vs. verbal) might be supported by different brain processes. In addition, the results show that absolute pitch and musical working memory can be spared in people with PCA.
Warren 2024. Neurological eponyms? Take your Pick. Pract Neurol. 17:535-544.
This is an opinion paper about whether using the name of a person who discovered a particular medical condition (eponym) is useful clinically for describing that condition. Professor Warren provides a long (but not exhaustive) list of eponyms in the field of neurology – some common examples include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. He suggests that eponyms are only useful if they are relevant to current clinical practice and refer to a discrete set of features that would be otherwise difficult to describe. The title of the paper is a play on words, as frontotemporal dementia used to be referred to as Pick’s disease because it was discovered by Arnold Pick.
Volkmer et al. 2024. An international core outcome set for primary progressive aphasia (COS-PPA): Consensus-based recommendations for communication interventions across research and clinical settings. Alzheimers Dement.
This is the first research study to establish a core outcome set (COS) for interventions for people living with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). COS refers to the set of outcome measures that will be used to assess whether an intervention has been successful. Five measures were identified:
- 1 - participate in conversations
- 2 - get words out
- 3 - be more fluent
- 4 - convey a message by any means
- 5 - understand what others are saying
These measures may need to be revised as more research into PPA is completed but has started the conversation on measuring outcomes for people with PPA and their care partners. A next step for the research community is to determine how to measure these outcomes. Please note that the plans for this study are described in the other paper by Volkmer et al. (2024) listed below.
Jiang et al. 2024. Pure-tone audiometry and dichotic listening in primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer's disease. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove).
Our ears help us receive and detect sounds (peripheral / ‘ear’ hearing), but our brains are responsible for interpreting and deriving meaning from sounds (central / ‘brain’ hearing). This study looked at peripheral and central hearing in people living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and primary progressive aphasia (PPA).
- To assess peripheral hearing, participants listened to simple tones that varied in loudness and pitch and pressed a button if they could hear the tone (pure-tone audiometry).
- To assess central hearing, participants heard different numbers in each ear at the same time (e.g., “1” in the left ear and “7” in the right ear) and had to report which numbers they heard (dichotic listening task).
- All patient groups performed equally well to the healthy volunteers on the peripheral hearing task, but worse on the central hearing task.
These results highlight that central hearing is an important feature of dementia, and central hearing problems might serve as an early indicator of dementia.
Taylor et al. 2024. Data-driven neuroanatomical subtypes of primary progressive aphasia. Brain.
Brain scans are often used to help diagnose people living with dementia. However, there is large variability in what the brain looks like across the primary progressive aphasia (PPA) subtypes. This research study used a machine learning algorithm to investigate differences in brain structure in PPA. Patients with the semantic (svPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), nonfluent (lvPPA), and non-specific (PPA-NOS) variants completed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. The scans for all participants were given to the algorithm without the algorithm knowing what each patient’s diagnosis was.
- The algorithm grouped the brain scans into four distinct ‘brain subtypes’ solely based on the features of the scans themselves.
- There was a clear association between svPPA and one brain subtype. lvPPA and nfvPPA were related to the other three brain subtypes.
- There was no clear relationship between PPA-NOS and any of the four brain subtypes.
This research helps contribute to our understanding of brain structure in PPA participants, which is critical for diagnosis, tracking how the condition evolves over time, and developing drug treatments.
Chokesuwattanaskul et al. 2024. Inappropriate trusting behaviour in dementia. Front Neurol.
Impaired decision making and judgement might lead people living with dementia to trust others they should not. This could have social or financial consequences, for example, getting scammed. This study looked at inappropriate trusting behavior. The researchers found that:
- Inappropriate trusting behavior was most common in patients living with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD; 55% of patients showed it) and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA; 44%) compared to patients living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD; 24%) or nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA; 17%).
- Out of the patients who exhibited inappropriate trusting behaviour, the svPPA patients tended to be more apathetic and bvFTD patients tended to be more impulsive and be less sensitive to adverse events (in this case, pain).
These results highlight that the prevalence of trusting behaviours differs across dementia subtypes and that clinicians should discuss this with all people living with dementia, especially those with bvFTD and svPPA.
Hardy CJD, et al. 2024. Symptom-based staging for logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. Eur J Neurol. 31:e16304.
This paper focused on people with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA). It is not well-established how symptoms in people with lvPPA evolve over time. A clinical staging system would be useful for clinicians and lvPPA patients and their families to help guide symptom management and care planning. Therefore, the researchers sought to develop one. They gave surveys to care partners of people with lvPPA that asked about a wide range of symptoms.
- The results suggested that there are six clinical stages of lvPPA.
- Symptoms in earlier stages involve word-finding difficulties, problems with understanding speech in noisy settings, and problems with memory and navigation.
- Symptoms in later stages include having trouble understanding simple messages and having issues producing speech that other people can understand.
Volkmer A et al. 2024. COS-PPA: protocol to develop a core outcome set for primary progressive aphasia. BMJ Open. 14:e078714.
When developing an intervention, it is necessary to have a set of measurable outcomes that indicate whether the intervention was successful, called a core outcome set (COS). This paper laid out the plans for a three-stage study that will help identify a COS for primary progressive aphasia (PPA) interventions. The reason for doing this study is because there is no published COS specifically for PPA (at the time of publication). The three stages of this study are as follows:
- Stage 1 - look at past research to see what measures have been used
- Stage 2 - consult people living with PPA and their care partners to identify what outcome measures are most important to them
- Stage 3 - gather PPA experts across the globe to agree upon the COS.
Mazzeo et al. 2024. Dysphagia in primary progressive aphasia: Clinical predictors and neuroanatomical basis. Eur J Neurol. 31:e16370
This research study looked at swallowing problems (dysphagia) in people living with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). The researchers discovered that:
- Swallowing problems were the most common in people living with the nonfluent variant (nfvPPA), with 43% of patients having issues.
- In comparison, only 5% of people with the semantic variant (svPPA) had swallowing issues and no patients with the logopenic variant (lvPPA) had issues.
- There were certain brain regions that were smaller in nfvPPA patients with dysphagia than those without.
- nfvPPA patients who had difficulties with voluntarily moving their face tended to have swallowing problems too.
The results highlight that dysphagia is an important non-language aspect of nfvPPA that clinicians need to be aware of so that patients can receive the appropriate care.
van’t Hooft J, et al. 2024. Musical experience influences socio-emotional functioning in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. Front. Neurol. 15.
This research study focused on people living with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). It looked at how someone’s musical background might be related to their social behaviours and ability to process emotions. The results showed that
- People who learned to play a musical instrument or sing when they were younger tended to have fewer social behaviour problems and tended to be better at perspective taking.
- People who spent more time listening to music tended to have greater empathy.
These results suggest that music might affect the severity of behavioural symptoms seen in bvFTD.
2023
- Hardy CJD, et al. 2023. Symptom‐led staging for semantic and non‐fluent/agrammatic variants of primary progressive aphasia. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 20(1): 195-210.
- van Leeuwen JEP, et al. 2023. Pupil responses to colorfulness are selectively reduced in healthy older adults. Sci. Rep. 13, 22139.
- Mulroy E, et al. 2023. Binary reversals: a diagnostic sign in primary progressive aphasia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
- Volkmer A, et al. 2023. Development of fidelity of delivery and enactment measures for interventions in communication disorders. British Journal of Health Psychology. 29(1): 112-133.
- Jiang J, et al. 2023. Comprehension of acoustically degraded speech in Alzheimer’s disease and primary progressive aphasia. Brain. 146(10): 4065-4076.
- Belder CRS, et al. 2023. Primary progressive aphasia: six questions in search of an answer. Journal of Neurology. 271: 1028-1046.
- Volkmer A, et al. 2023. Results from a randomized controlled pilot study of the Better Conversations with Primary Progressive Aphasia (BCPPA) communication partner training program for people with PPA and their communication partner. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 9(87).
- Chokesuwattanaskul A, et al. 2023. The architecture of abnormal reward behaviour in dementia: multimodal hedonic phenotypes and brain substrate. Brain Comm. 5(2).
- Barnes RJQ, Warren JD, 2023. Shouting from far away: three poems about living with speechlessness. Prac. Neurol. 23:176-177.
- Belder CRS, et al. 2023. The problematic syndrome of right temporal lobe atrophy: Unweaving the phenotypic rainbow. Front. Neurol. 13.
- van Leeuwen JEP, et al. 2023. Thinking eyes: visual thinking strategies and the social brain. Front. Psychol. 14.
2022
- Loizidou M, et al. 2022. ‘Like going into a chocolate shop, blindfolded’: What do people with primary progressive aphasia want from speech and language therapy? International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 58(3): 737-755.
- Chokesuwattanaskul A, et al. 2022. Primary progressive aphasia: ReADing the clinical GRANularity. Prac. Neurol. 22:509-514.
- Requena-Komuro M-C, Jiang J, 2022. Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals. BMJ Open. 12.
- Jiang J, et al. 2022. Phonemic restoration in Alzheimer’s disease and semantic dementia: a preliminary investigation. Brain Comm. 4(3).
- Bolton L, et al. 2022. Music as a person centred intervention for dementia. BMJ. 376.
- van Leeuwen JEP, et al. 2022. More Than Meets the Eye: Art Engages the Social Brain. Front. Neurosci. 16.
2021
- Sivasathiaseelan H, et al. 2021. Laughter as a paradigm of socio-emotional signal processing in dementia. Cortex. 142:186-203.
- Johnson JCS, et al. 2021. Suspecting dementia: canaries, chameleons and zebras. Prac. Neurol. 21:300-312.
- Jiang J, et al. 2021. Processing of Degraded Speech in Brain Disorders. Brain Sci. 11(3): 394.
- Ruksenaite J, et al. 2021. Primary Progressive Aphasia: Toward a Pathophysiological Synthesis. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. 21.
- Johnson JCS, et al. 2021. Hearing and dementia: from ears to brain. Brain. 144(2): 391-401.
- Benhamou E, et al. 2021. Decoding expectation and surprise in dementia: the paradigm of music. Brain Comm. 3(3).
2020
- Zimmerer VC, et al. 2020. Automated profiling of spontaneous speech in primary progressive aphasia and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia: An approach based on usage-frequency. Cortex. 133:103-119.
- Benhamou E, et al. 2020. The neurophysiological architecture of semantic dementia: spectral dynamic causal modelling of a neurodegenerative proteinopathy. Scientific Reports. 10.
- Utoomprurkporn N, et al. 2020. “The Dichotic Digit Test” as an Index Indicator for Hearing Problem in Dementia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Am Acad Audiol. 31(9):646-655.
- Jimenez DA, et al. 2020. Altered phobic reactions in frontotemporal dementia: A behavioural and neuroanatomical analysis. Cortex. 130:100-110.
- Hardy CJD, et al. 2020. Impairments of auditory scene analysis in posterior cortical atrophy. Brain. 143(9): 2689-2695.
- Johnson JCS, et al. 2020. Impaired phonemic discrimination in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology. 7(7): 1252-1257.
- Requena-Komuro M-C, et al. 2020. Altered Time Awareness in Dementia. Front. Neurol. 11.
- Benhamou E, Warren JD, 2020. Disorders of music processing in dementia. Music and the Aging Brain. 107-149.
Selection of Past Papers
2019
- Hardy CJD, et al. 2019. Findings of impaired hearing in nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia. JAMA Neurology, 76(5):607-611.
- Marshall CR, et al. 2019. The functional neuroanatomy of emotion processing in frontotemporal dementias. Brain 142(9):2873-2887.
- Sani TP, et al. 2019. Sleep symptoms in syndromes of frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease: A proof-of-principle behavioural study. eNeurologicalSci 17: 100212.
- Slattery CF, et al. 2019. The functional neuroanatomy of musical memory in Alzheimer’s disease. Cortex 115: 357-370.
- Volkmer A, et al. 2019. Speech and language therapy for primary progressive aphasia across the UK: A survey of current practice. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 54(6): 914-926.
2018
- Hardy CJD, et al. 2018. Retained capacity for perceptual learning of degraded speech in primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy 10(1): 70.
- Magdalinou NK, et al. 2018. Verbal adynamia in parkinsonian syndromes: behavioral correlates and neuroanatomical substrate. Neurocase 24(4): 204-212.
- Marshall CR, et al. 2018. Motor signatures of emotional reactivity in frontotemporal dementia. Scientific Reports 8: 1030.
- Marshall CR, et al. 2018. Cardiac responses to viewing facial emotion differentiate frontotemporal dementias. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology 5(6): 687-696.
- Muhammed L, et al. 2018. Agnosia for bird calls. Neuropsychologia 113: 61-67.
- Volkmer A, et al. 2018. The 'Better Conversations with Primary Progressive Aphasia (BCPPA)' program for people with PPA (Primary Progressive Aphasia): protocol for a randomised controlled pilot study. Pilot and Feasibility Studies 4: 158.
2017
- Golden HL, et al. 2017. Music perception in dementia. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 55: 933-949.
- Hardy CJ, et al. 2017. Functional neuroanatomy of speech signal decoding in primary progressive aphasias. Neurobiology of Aging 56: 190-201.
- Hardy CJD, et al. 2017. Donepezil enhances understanding of degraded speech in Alzheimer’s disease. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology 4(11): 835-840.
- Marshall CR, et al. 2017. Impaired interoceptive accuracy in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia. Frontiers in Neurology 8: 610.
2016
- Cohen MH, et al. 2016. Processing emotion from abstract art in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neuropsychologia 81: 245-254.
- Golden HL, et al. 2016. Functional neuroanatomy of spatial sound processing in Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Ageing 39: 154-164.
- Jaisin K, et al. 2016. The speech-to-song Illusion Is reduced in speakers of tonal (vs. non-tonal) languages. Frontiers in Psychology 7: 662.
2015
- Clark CN, et al. 2015. Humour processing in frontotemporal lobar degeneration: A behavioural and neuroanatomical analysis. Cortex 69, 47-59.
- Fletcher PD, et al. 2015. Auditory hedonic phenotypes in dementia: A behavioural and neuroanatomical analysis. Cortex 67: 95-105.
- Fletcher PD, et al. 2015. Pain and temperature processing in dementia: a clinical and neuroanatomical analysis. Brain 138: 3360-3372
- Fletcher PD, et al. 2015. Physiological phenotyping of dementias using emotional sounds. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring 1: 170–178.
- Golden HL, et al. 2015. Functional neuroanatomy of auditory scene analysis in Alzheimer's disease. Neuroimage Clinical 7: 699-708.
- Golden HL, et al. 2015. Auditory spatial processing in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 138: 189-202.
- Hardy CJ, et al. 2015. The Language Profile of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 50: 359-371.
- Mahoney CJ, et al. 2015. Longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging in frontotemporal dementia. Annals of Neurology 77: 33-46.
2014
- Downey LE, et al. 2014. Altered body schema processing in frontotemporal dementia with C9ORF72 mutations. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 85: 1016-1023.
2013
- Downey LE, et al. 2013. Mentalising music in frontotemporal dementia. Cortex 49: 1844-1855
- Omar R, et al. 2013. Flavour identification in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 84: 88-93.
2012
- Goll JC, et al. 2012. Impairments of auditory scene analysis in Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 135(Pt 1): 190-200.
- Goll JC, et al. 2012. Nonverbal sound processing in semantic dementia: A functional MRI study. Neuroimage 61(1): 170-180.
- Hailstone JC, et al. 2012. Accent processing in dementia. Neuropsychologia 50(9): 2233-2244.
- Mahoney CJ, et al. 2012. Frontotemporal dementia with the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion: clinical, neuroanatomical and neuropathological features. Brain 135(Pt 3): 736-750.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2012. Receptive prosody in nonfluent primary progressive aphasias. Cortex 48(3): 308-316.
- Warren JD, et al. 2012. Disintegrating brain networks: from syndromes to molecular nexopathies. Neuron 73: 1060–1062.
2011
- Goll JC, et al. 2011. Auditory object cognition in dementia. Neuropsychologia. 49: 2755-2765.
- Hailstone JC, et al. 2011. Voice processing in dementia: a neuropsychological and neuroanatomical analysis. Brain 134(Pt 9): 2535-2547.
- Omar R, et al. 2011. The structural neuroanatomy of music emotion recognition: evidence from frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neuroimage 56(3): 1814-1821.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2011. Clinical and neuroanatomical signatures of tissue pathology in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Brain 134(Pt 9): 2565-2581.
2010
- Goll JC, et al. 2010. Non-verbal sound processing in the primary progressive aphasias. Brain 133(Pt 1): 272-285.
- Omar R, et al. 2010. The cognitive organisation of music knowledge: a clinical analysis. Brain 133: 1200-1213.
- Piwnica-Worms KE, et al. 2010. Flavour processing in semantic dementia. Cortex 46: 761-768.
- Rohrer JD, Warren JD, 2010. Phenomenology and anatomy of abnormal behaviours in primary progressive aphasia. Journal of the Neurological Sciences 293: 35-38.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2010. Progranulin-associated primary progressive aphasia: A distinct phenotype? Neuropsychologia 48: 288-297.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2010. Syndromes of nonfluent primary progressive aphasia: a clinical and neurolinguistic analysis. Neurology 75: 603-610.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2010. Progressive logopenic/phonological aphasia: erosion of the language network. Neuroimage 49: 984-993.
- Rohrer JD, et al. 2010. Distinct profiles of brain atrophy in frontotemporal lobar degeneration caused by progranulin and tau mutations. Neuroimage 53: 1070-1076.
2009
- Hailstone J, et al. 2009. Relatively preserved knowledge of music in semantic dementia. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 80: 808-809.
- Hailstone JC, et al. 2009. It’s not what you play, it’s how you play it: timbre affects perception of emotion in music. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62: 2141-2155.
2007
- Whitwell JL, et al. 2007. VBM signatures of abnormal eating behaviours in frontotemporal lobar degeneration. NeuroImage 35(1): 207-213.
2006
- Warren JD, et al. 2006. Human brain mechanisms for the early analysis of voices. NeuroImage 31(3): 1389-1397.
2005
- Warren JD, et al. 2005. Analysis of the spectral envelope of sounds by the human brain. Neuroimage 24(4): 1052-1057.
- Warren JD, et al. 2005. Brain biopsy in dementia. Brain 128(9): 2016-2025.
- Warren JE, et al. 2005. Sounds do-able: auditory-motor transformations and the posterior temporal plane. Trends in Neurosciences 28(12): 636-643.
2004
- Griffiths TD, Warren JD, 2004. What is an auditory object? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5(11): 887-892.
2003
- Warren JD, Griffiths TD, 2003. Distinct mechanisms for processing spatial sequences and pitch sequences in the human auditory brain. Journal of Neuroscience 23(13): 5799-5804.
- Warren JD, et al. 2003. Separating pitch chroma and pitch height in the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100(17): 10038-10042.
2002
- Griffiths TD, Warren JD, 2002. The planum temporale as a computational hub. Trends in Neurosciences 25(7): 348-353.
- Warren JD, et al. 2002. Perception of sound-source motion by the human brain. Neuron 34(1): 139-148.