title: Primary progressive aphasias and their contribution to the contemporary knowledge about the brain-language relationship.
abstract: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA), typically resulting from a neurodegenerative disease such as frontotemporal dementia/Pick Complex or Alzheimer's disease, is a heterogeneous clinical condition characterized by a progressive loss of specific language functions with initial sparing of other cognitive domains. Based on the constellation of symptoms, PPA has been classified into a nonfluent, semantic, or logopenic variant. This review of the literature aims to characterize the speech and language impairment, cognition, neuroimaging, pathology, genetics, and epidemiology associated with each of these variants. Some therapeutic recommendations, theoretical implications, and directions for future research have been also provided.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Sciences, Division of Clinical Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk, Bażyńskiego 4, 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland. mharciarek@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Michał
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harciarek
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kertesz
mesh_terms: D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D059906:Neuroimaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests