Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) remains a difficult diagnosis, often based purely on clinical criteria because standard investigations can be normal.¹ Although the diagnostic criteria of early changes in personal and social conduct certainly hold true, these terms are rather abstract and are subject to multiple interpretations. Eslinger et al² (see p 457), in this issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, make an important contribution to the understanding of social behaviour in FTD. From their and other studies, it has gradually become clear that social behaviour …