Catchup – Understanding Apathy in Dementia

Apathy is one of the most common symptoms in dementia and one of the least well understood. This session asks a simple question. What is really going on when people stop acting.

This livestream is part of the Dementia Researcher weekly ‘Showcase’ series. Each week we host a 45 minute online session that brings researchers together to share work.

In this session, Rebecca Williams will focus on apathy in dementia, with particular attention to frontotemporal lobar degeneration. She will introduce a different way of thinking about apathy, not as a simple lack of motivation, but as a loss of confidence in the outcomes of action. Drawing on her PhD research, she will explain how this shift in thinking, alongside computational modelling, is helping to generate new insights into causes and potential approaches to treatment.

Rebecca is a PhD student specialising in dementia research at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge. Attendees can expect a clear and accessible talk, grounded in current research, with time for questions and discussion at the end.