title: The time course of neurolinguistic and neuropsychological symptoms in three cases of logopenic primary progressive aphasia.
abstract: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a rare clinical dementia syndrome affecting predominantly language abilities. Word-finding difficulties and comprehension deficits despite relatively preserved cognitive functions are characteristic symptoms during the first two years, and distinguish PPA from other dementia types like Alzheimer's disease. However, the dynamics of changes in language and non-linguistic abilities are not well understood. Most studies on progression used cross-sectional designs, which provide only limited insight into the course of the disease. Here we report the results of a longitudinal study in three cases of logopenic PPA over a period of 18 months, with exemplary longitudinal data from one patient even over 46 months. A comprehensive battery of neurolinguistic and neuropsychological tests was applied four times at intervals of six months. Over this period, deterioration of verbal abilities such as picture naming, story retelling, and semantic word recall was found, and the individual decline was quantified and compared between the three patients. Furthermore, decrease in non-verbal skills such as divided attention and increasing apraxia was observed in all three patients. In addition, inter-subject variability in the progression with different focuses was observed, with one patient developing a non-fluent PPA variant. The longitudinal, multivariate investigation of logopenic PPA thus provides novel insights into the progressive deterioration of verbal as well as non-verbal abilities. These deficits may further interact and thus form a multi-causal basis for the patients' problems in every-day life which need to be considered when planning individually targeted intervention in PPA.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre Jülich, Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1, INM-2), Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Etcheverry
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Seidel
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grande
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schulte
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pieperhoff
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Südmeyer
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Minnerop
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Binkofski
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huber
authors.forename: Yosef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Grodzinsky
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Amunts
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000150:complications*; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D032882:Comprehension; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning