Performance in specific language tasks correlates with regional volume changes in progressive aphasia.
BACKGROUND
Patterns of language impairment have long been used clinically to localize brain damage in stroke patients. The same approach might be useful in the differential diagnosis of progressive aphasia owing to neurodegenerative disease.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether scores on 4 widely used language tasks correlate with regional gray matter loss in 51 patients with progressive language impairment owing to neurodegenerative disease.


METHODS
Scores in the Boston Naming Test and in the "repetition" "sequential commands" and the "language fluency," subtests of the Western Aphasia Battery were correlated with voxel-wise gray matter volumes using voxel-based morphometry.


RESULTS
Significant positive correlations were found between each language task and regional brain volumes: (1) naming and the bilateral temporal lobes; (2) sentence repetition and the left posterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus; (3) sentence comprehension and the left dorsal middle and inferior frontal gyri; and (4) fluency of language production and the left ventral middle and inferior frontal gyri.


CONCLUSIONS
Performance on specific language tasks corresponds to regional anatomic damage in aphasia owing to neurodegenerative disorders. These language tests might be useful in the differential diagnosis of primary progressive aphasia variants that have been previously associated with damage to corresponding anatomic regions.
Amici
Serena
S
Department of Neurology, Memory and Aging Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Ogar
Jennifer
J
Brambati
Simona Maria
SM
Miller
Bruce L
BL
Neuhaus
John
J
Dronkers
Nina L
NL
Gorno-Tempini
Maria Luisa
ML
D000368:Aged; D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001284:Atrophy; D001931:Brain Mapping; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D020534:Parahippocampal Gyrus / Q000473:pathology; D011594:Psychometrics; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000473:pathology