Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffA variety of mutations on several different genes have been linked to specific subtypes of frontotemporal dementia. But more than half the people who develop frontotemporal dementia have no family history of dementia.
In some cases of frontotemporal dementia, the affected parts of the brain contain microscopic Pick bodies — abnormal protein-filled structures that develop within brain cells. Frontotemporal dementia was once known as Pick's disease, but now that terminology is reserved for the subtype that actually features these abnormal structures.
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