A new report by the researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has revealed that people who cannot recognize sarcasm or lies could probably be showing early signs of dementia!

The researchers, who chiefly ascertained those areas of the brain that govern a person’s ability to detect sarcasm and lies, found that the test subjects had neurodegenerative diseases that caused the deterioration of those specific parts of the brain.

The study involved the participation of 175 people, more than 50 percent of whom had dementia. The study participants chiefly included people suffering from corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia; as well as healthy individuals.

The study participants were asked to watch videos of two people talking; and, on the basis of verbal and non-verbal clues, pinpoint the false or insincere statements – found that while healthy could easily pick out the lies and sarcasm, those suffering from frontotemporal dementia were not able to distinguish among lies, sarcasm and fact.

Noting that the ability to identify lies is centered in the brain’s frontal lobe, which degenerates with frontotemporal dementia, UCSF neuropsychologist Katherine Rankin – senior study author and a member of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center – said that patients with frontotemporal dementia “cannot detect lies,” and added that “This fact can help them be diagnosed earlier”!