# Language and Emotions: Discovery and Clinical Translation

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2024 · $588,573

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY—Language and Emotions: Discovery and Clinical Translation (Project ൬)
In primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), symptoms can
reflect the neurodegeneration of language and emotion brain networks. Although recent clinical and basic
science evidence suggests there is substantial conceptual, mechanistic, and clinical overlap between the
domains of language and emotion, research on these areas has largely proceeded in parallel. In patients who
exhibit early alterations in both language and behavior, diagnostic accuracy can be limited because theoretical
and anatomical models of the language-emotion interface are lacking. A central hypothesis of this proposal is
that damage and decline in interacting language and emotion neural networks underlie symptoms in PPA,
bvFTD, and emotional semantic variant frontotemporal dementia (esvFTD), a newly defined syndrome. Studies
of PPA and bvFTD often do not include comprehensive assessments of both language and emotion systems
because evaluation of these domains typically requires specialized, time-intensive approaches. A more detailed
understanding of the clinical features that characterize these disorders at presentation, and the symptoms that
emerge over time, will facilitate differential diagnosis and help to predict neuropathological subtypes, a critical
step in the emerging era of molecular-specific therapies. Assessment tools that provide scalable, objective, and
ultimately automated, measures of language and emotion functioning will be needed before these approaches
can be used to monitor disease progression or treatment response in large-scale clinical trials. In the proposed
project, we will leverage existing clinical, neuroimaging, and neuropathological data collected in previous PPG
cycles and will collect new language and emotion (i.e., autonomic nervous system activity, facial expression, and
emotional experience) data using innovative techniques. We will conduct three annual in-person evaluations and
five semiannual remote longitudinal assessments of language and emotion in patients with PPA, bvFTD, and
esvFTD and in age-matched healthy controls. We will use these data to refine current clinical conceptualizations
of these disorders and to investigate how neural system decline relates to language and emotion trajectories
across the clinical syndromes. We will also develop automated tools that extract objective measures of language
and emotion, which will make these approaches more accessible to the community. We will address three key
aims. In Aim ൬, we will advance current models of PPA, bvFTD, and esvFTD by integrating language and emotion
measures. In Aim ൭, we will map longitudinal decline in language, emotion, and associated brain structures and
networks in PPA, bvFTD, and esvFTD. In Aim ൮, we will create automated language and emotion tools that
facilitate diagnosis, track progression, and predict pathology. The proposed projec...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10890589
- **Project number:** 5P01AG019724-22
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** MARIA LUISA GORNO TEMPINI
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $588,573
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2002-09-01 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10890589

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10890589, Language and Emotions: Discovery and Clinical Translation (5P01AG019724-22). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10890589. Licensed CC0.

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