title: The relationship between comprehension and oral reading in progressive fluent aphasia.
abstract: The role played by comprehension in oral reading was investigated in three patients with progressive fluent aphasia. For patients J.L. and G.C., there was evidence of a deficit in semantic memory affecting both word production and comprehension. F.M., although equally anomic, had significantly better single-word comprehension than either J.L. or G.C. It was predicted that, for J.L. and G.C., success or failure in word comprehension should show item-specific correspondence with success or failure in reading exception words, but not regular words. This predicted pattern was obtained between word-picture matching tests and reading. For F.M., with only minimal comprehension impairment for the items used, a smaller trend in the same direction was observed. The results are discussed with respect to Patterson and Hodges' hypothesis (Neuropsychologia 30, 1025-1040, 1992) regarding the consequences of impaired semantic memory for the integrity of representations in the phonological output lexicon.
authors.affiliation: MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, U.K.
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Graham
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hodges
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Patterson
mesh_terms: D001037:Aphasia / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis