Neural regions underlying object and action naming: Complementary evidence from acute stroke and primary progressive aphasia

BACKGROUND

Naming impairment is commonly noted in individuals with aphasia. However, object naming receives more attention than action naming. Furthermore, most studies include participants with aphasia due to only one aetiology, commonly stroke. We developed a new assessment, the Hopkins Action Naming Assessment (HANA), to evaluate action naming impairments.

AIMS

Our aims were to show that the HANA is a useful tool that can (1) identify action naming impairments and (2) be used to investigate the neural substrates underlying naming. We paired the HANA with the Boston Naming Test (BNT) to compare action and object naming. We considered participants with aphasia due to primary progressive aphasia (PPA) or acute left hemisphere stroke to provide a more comprehensive picture of brain-behaviour relationships critical for naming. Behaviourally, we hypothesised that there would be a double dissociation between object and action naming performance. Neuroanatomically, we hypothesised that different neural substrates would be implicated in object vs. action naming and that different lesion-deficit associations would be identified in participants with PPA vs. acute stroke.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Participants (N=138 with PPA, N=37 with acute stroke) completed the BNT and HANA. Behavioural performance was compared. A subset of participants (N=31 with PPA, N=37 with acute stroke) provided neuroimaging data. The whole brain was automatically segmented into regions of interest (ROIs). For participants with PPA, the image variables were the ROI volumes, normalised by the brain volume. For participants with acute stroke, the image variables were the percentage of each ROI affected by the lesion. The relationship between ROIs likely to be involved in naming performance was modelled with LASSO regression.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Behavioural results showed a double dissociation in performance: in each group, some participants displayed intact performance relative to healthy controls on actions but not objects and/or significantly better performance on actions than objects, while others showed the opposite pattern. These results support the need to assess both objects and actions when evaluating naming deficits. Neuroimaging results identified different regions associated with object vs. action naming, implicating overlapping but distinct networks of regions. Furthermore, results differed for participants with PPA vs. acute stroke, indicating that critical information may be missed when only one aetiology is considered.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the study provides a more comprehensive picture of the neural bases of naming, underscoring the importance of assessing both objects and actions and considering different aetiologies of damage. It demonstrates the utility of the HANA.

Case Report: Barely Able to Speak, Can't Stop Echoing: Echolalic Dynamic Aphasia in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

The diagnostic criteria for progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) incorporate two speech-language disturbances (SLDs), non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia and progressive apraxia of speech, but overlook the inclusion of other SLDs, including dynamic aphasia (DA). Thus, there is a need to reappraise the broad spectrum of SLDs in PSP to include other presenting phenotypes. Here we report findings from the study of two elderly patients with PSP presenting with DA and irrepressible echolalia. Both patients had markedly impoverished verbal production, but their performance in other tasks (repetition and naming) and auditory comprehension were preserved or only mildly impaired. Experimental tests of DA revealed impaired word and sentence generation in response to verbal and non-verbal stimuli. Additional language and cognitive testing revealed different types of echolalia (mitigated, automatic, and echoing approval) as well as impaired inhibitory control and social cognition (mentalizing). Both patients had negative neuropsychiatric alterations (i.e., apathy, aspontaneity, and indifference/emotional flatness). Brain magnetic resonance imaging in both patients showed atrophy of the midbrain tegmentum and superior medial frontal cortex suggestive of PSP, yet further evaluation of the neural correlates using multimodal neuroimaging and neuropathological data was not performed. However, based on the already known neural basis of DA and echolalia in PSP and stroke, we suggest that, in the present cases, neurodegeneration in the midbrain tegmentum, superior medial frontal lobe, and caudate nucleus was responsible for DA and that decreased activity in these regions may play a permissive role for eliciting verbal echoing via disinhibition of the perisylvian speech-language network.

Uncovering the prevalence and neural substrates of anhedonia in frontotemporal dementia

Much of human behaviour is motivated by the drive to experience pleasure. The capacity to envisage pleasurable outcomes and to engage in goal-directed behaviour to secure these outcomes depends upon the integrity of frontostriatal circuits in the brain. Anhedonia refers to the diminished ability to experience, and to pursue, pleasurable outcomes, and represents a prominent motivational disturbance in neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite increasing evidence of motivational disturbances in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), no study to date has explored the hedonic experience in these syndromes. Here, we present the first study to document the prevalence and neural correlates of anhedonia in FTD in comparison with Alzheimer's disease, and its potential overlap with related motivational symptoms including apathy and depression. A total of 172 participants were recruited, including 87 FTD, 34 Alzheimer's disease, and 51 healthy older control participants. Within the FTD group, 55 cases were diagnosed with clinically probable behavioural variant FTD, 24 presented with semantic dementia, and eight cases had progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA). Premorbid and current anhedonia was measured using the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, while apathy was assessed using the Dimensional Apathy Scale, and depression was indexed via the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to examine associations between grey matter atrophy and levels of anhedonia, apathy, and depression in patients. Relative to controls, behavioural variant FTD and semantic dementia, but not PNFA or Alzheimer's disease, patients showed clinically significant anhedonia, representing a clear departure from pre-morbid levels. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that anhedonia was associated with atrophy in an extended frontostriatal network including orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal, paracingulate and insular cortices, as well as the putamen. Although correlated on the behavioural level, the neural correlates of anhedonia were largely dissociable from that of apathy, with only a small region of overlap detected in the right orbitofrontal cortices whilst no overlapping regions were found between anhedonia and depression. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to demonstrate profound anhedonia in FTD syndromes, reflecting atrophy of predominantly frontostriatal brain regions specialized for hedonic tone. Our findings point to the importance of considering anhedonia as a primary presenting feature of behavioural variant FTD and semantic dementia, with distinct neural drivers to that of apathy or depression. Future studies will be essential to address the impact of anhedonia on everyday activities, and to inform the development of targeted interventions to improve quality of life in patients and their families.

Functional decline in the aphasic variant of Alzheimer's disease

INTRODUCTION

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) or Alzheimer's disease (AD). Impairment in activities of daily living is essential for dementia diagnosis, yet less is known about the neuropathologic impact on functional decline in PPA, especially over time.

METHODS

Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (ADLQ) ratings were compared by suspected underlying pathology between 17 PPA^Aβ+ and 11 PPA^Aβ- participants at 6-month intervals for 2 years using a linear mixed-effects model. A general linear model examined associations between functional decline and cortical thickness at baseline.

RESULTS

Groups did not differ in demographics or aphasia severity at baseline, yet overall and subdomain scores of the ADLQ were significantly worse for PPA^Aβ+ compared to PPA^Aβ- (P = .015) at each interval across 18 months.

DISCUSSION

Functional decline appears more pronounced and disrupts more aspects of life activities for individuals with non-semantic PPA with suspected AD versus non-AD neuropathology.

Processing of Degraded Speech in Brain Disorders

The speech we hear every day is typically "degraded" by competing sounds and the idiosyncratic vocal characteristics of individual speakers. While the comprehension of "degraded" speech is normally automatic, it depends on dynamic and adaptive processing across distributed neural networks. This presents the brain with an immense computational challenge, making degraded speech processing vulnerable to a range of brain disorders. Therefore, it is likely to be a sensitive marker of neural circuit dysfunction and an index of retained neural plasticity. Considering experimental methods for studying degraded speech and factors that affect its processing in healthy individuals, we review the evidence for altered degraded speech processing in major neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury and stroke. We develop a predictive coding framework for understanding deficits of degraded speech processing in these disorders, focussing on the "language-led dementias"-the primary progressive aphasias. We conclude by considering prospects for using degraded speech as a probe of language network pathophysiology, a diagnostic tool and a target for therapeutic intervention.

Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography findings in neurodegenerative diseases: Current status and future directions

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are characterized by progressive neuronal loss, leading to dementia and movement disorders. NDDs broadly include Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, parkinsonian syndromes, and prion diseases. There is an ever-increasing prevalence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, with an accompanying immense economic impact, prompting efforts aimed at early identification and effective interventions. Neuroimaging is an essential tool for the early diagnosis of NDDs in both clinical and research settings. Structural, functional, and metabolic imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), are widely available. They show encouraging results for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment response evaluation. The current review focuses on the complementary role of various imaging modalities in relation to NDDs, the qualitative and quantitative utility of newer MRI techniques, novel radiopharmaceuticals, and integrated PET/MRI in the setting of NDDs.

Neural substrates of verbal repetition deficits in primary progressive aphasia

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the relationship between cortical thickness and performance on several verbal repetition tasks in a cohort of patients with primary progressive aphasia in order to test predictions generated by theoretical accounts of phonological working memory that predict phonological content buffers in left posterior inferior frontal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus. Cortical surfaces were reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging scans from 42 participants diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia. Cortical thickness was measured in a set of anatomical regions spanning the entire cerebral cortex. Correlation analyses were performed between cortical thickness and average score across three phonological working memory-related tasks: the Repetition sub-test from the Western Aphasia Battery, a forward digit span task, and a backward digit span task. Significant correlations were found between average working memory score across tasks and cortical thickness in left supramarginal gyrus and left posterior inferior frontal sulcus, in support of prior theoretical accounts of phonological working memory. Exploratory whole-brain correlation analyses performed for each of the three behavioural tasks individually revealed a distinct set of positively correlated regions for each task. Comparison of cortical thickness measures from different primary progressive aphasia sub-types to cortical thickness in age-matched controls further revealed unique patterns of atrophy in the different subtypes.

Exploring the effects of verb and noun treatment on verb phrase production in primary progressive aphasia: A series of single case experimental design studies

Evidence of generalization to connected speech following lexical retrieval treatment in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is scarce. Consequently, this study systematically investigated changes in verb phrase production following lexical retrieval treatment in a series of single case experimental design studies. Four individuals with PPA (three semantic- and one logopenic variant PPA) who had previously demonstrated that they could integrate verbs and nouns into sentence structures in a cueing paradigm, undertook a sequence of verb and noun lexical retrieval treatments using Repetition and Reading in the Presence of a Picture. Production of treated nouns- and/or verbs-in-isolation significantly improved following treatment for three of the four participants. Verb phrase production did not improve for one of these participants (logopenic PPA), perhaps due to the relatively small treatment dose. Two participants (semantic variant PPA) did, however, demonstrate across-level generalization, with improvement in treated verbs and using those verbs in (untreated) verb phrases. Their verb phrase production improved most after lexical retrieval treatment for both nouns and verbs, suggesting this combined approach may benefit across-level generalization for some individuals in clinical practice.

Breakdowns in Informativeness of Naturalistic Speech Production in Primary Progressive Aphasia

“Functional communication” refers to an individual’s ability to communicate effectively in his or her everyday environment, and thus is a paramount skill to monitor and target therapeutically in people with aphasia. However, traditional controlled-paradigm assessments commonly used in both research and clinical settings often fail to adequately capture this ability. In the current study, facets of functional communication were measured from picture-elicited speech samples from 70 individuals with mild primary progressive aphasia (PPA), including the three variants, and 31 age-matched controls. Building upon methods recently used by Berube et al. (2019), we measured the informativeness of speech by quantifying the content of each patient’s description that was relevant to a picture relative to the total amount of speech they produced. Importantly, form-based errors, such as mispronunciations of words, unusual word choices, or grammatical mistakes are not penalized in this approach. We found that the relative informativeness, or efficiency, of speech was preserved in non-fluent variant PPA patients as compared with controls, whereas the logopenic and semantic variant PPA patients produced significantly less informative output. Furthermore, reduced informativeness in the semantic variant is attributable to a lower production of content units and a propensity for self-referential tangents, whereas for the logopenic variant, a lower production of content units and relatively ”empty” speech and false starts contribute to this reduction. These findings demonstrate that functional communication impairment does not uniformly affect all the PPA variants and highlight the utility of naturalistic speech analysis for measuring the breakdown of functional communication in PPA.

Thematic Integration Impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a degenerative disease affecting language while leaving other cognitive facilities relatively unscathed. The agrammatic subtype of PPA (PPA-G) is characterized by agrammatic language production with impaired comprehension of noncanonical filler-gap syntactic structures, such as object-relatives [e.g., The sandwich that the girl ate (gap) was tasty], in which the filler (the sandwich) is displaced from the object position within the relative clause to a position preceding both the verb and the agent (the girl) and is replaced by a gap linked with the filler. One hypothesis suggests that the observed deficits of these structures reflect impaired thematic integration, including impaired prediction of the thematic role of the filler and impaired thematic integration at the gap, but spared structure building (i.e., creation of the gap). In the current study, we examined the on-line comprehension of object-relative and subject-relative clauses in healthy controls and individuals with agrammatic and logopenic PPA using eye-tracking. Eye-movement patterns in canonical subject-relative clause structures were essentially spared in both PPA groups. In contrast, eye-movement patterns in noncanonical object-relative clauses revealed delayed thematic prediction in both agrammatic and logopenic PPA, on-time structure building (i.e., gap-filling) in both groups, and abnormal thematic integration in agrammatic, but not logopenic, PPA. We argue that these results are consistent with the hypothesis that agrammatic comprehension deficits reflect impaired thematic integration.

A Reliable and Rapid Language Tool for the Diagnosis, Classification, and Follow-Up of Primary Progressive Aphasia Variants

Background: Primary progressive aphasias (PPA) have been investigated by clinical, therapeutic, and fundamental research but examiner-consistent language tests for reliable reproducible diagnosis and follow-up are lacking.

Methods: We developed and evaluated a rapid language test for PPA (“PARIS”) assessing its inter-examiner consistency, its power to detect and classify PPA, and its capacity to identify language decline after a follow-up of 9 months. To explore the reliability and specificity/sensitivity of the test it was applied to PPA patients (N = 36), typical amnesic Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (N = 24) and healthy controls (N = 35), while comparing it to two rapid examiner-consistent language tests used in stroke-induced aphasia (“LAST”, “ART”).

Results: The application duration of the “PARIS” was ~10 min and its inter-rater consistency was of 88%. The three tests distinguished healthy controls from AD and PPA patients but only the “PARIS” reliably separated PPA from AD and allowed for classifying the two most frequent PPA variants: semantic and logopenic PPA. Compared to the “LAST” and “ART,” the “PARIS” also had the highest sensitivity for detecting language decline.

Conclusions: The “PARIS” is an efficient, rapid, and highly examiner-consistent language test for the diagnosis, classification, and follow-up of frequent PPA variants. It might also be a valuable tool for providing end-points in future therapeutic trials on PPA and other neurodegenerative diseases affecting language processing.

Accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and activated microglia is associated with lower neuron densities in the aphasic variant of Alzheimer's disease

The neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) and amyloid-ß plaques (AP) that comprise Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology are associated with neurodegeneration and microglial activation. Activated microglia exist on a dynamic spectrum of morphologic subtypes that include resting, surveillant microglia capable of converting to activated, hypertrophic microglia closely linked to neuroinflammatory processes and AD neuropathology in amnestic AD. However, quantitative analyses of microglial subtypes and neurons are lacking in non-amnestic clinical AD variants, including primary progressive aphasia (PPA-AD). PPA-AD is a language disorder characterized by cortical atrophy and NFT densities concentrated to the language-dominant hemisphere. Here, a stereologic investigation of five PPA-AD participants determined the densities and distributions of neurons and microglial subtypes to examine how cellular changes relate to AD neuropathology and may contribute to cortical atrophy. Adjacent series of sections were immunostained for neurons (NeuN) and microglia (HLA-DR) from bilateral language and non-language regions where in vivo cortical atrophy and Thioflavin-S-positive APs and NFTs were previously quantified. NeuN-positive neurons and morphologic subtypes of HLA-DR-positive microglia (i.e., resting [ramified] microglia and activated [hypertrophic] microglia) were quantified using unbiased stereology. Relationships between neurons, microglia, AD neuropathology, and cortical atrophy were determined using linear mixed models. NFT densities were positively associated with hypertrophic microglia densities (P < 0.01) and inversely related to neuron densities (P = 0.01). Hypertrophic microglia densities were inversely related to densities of neurons (P < 0.01) and ramified microglia (P < 0.01). Ramified microglia densities were positively associated with neuron densities (P = 0.02) and inversely related to cortical atrophy (P = 0.03). Our findings provide converging evidence of divergent roles for microglial subtypes in patterns of neurodegeneration, which includes hypertrophic microglia likely driving a neuroinflammatory response more sensitive to NFTs than APs in PPA-AD. Moreover, the accumulation of both NFTs and activated hypertrophic microglia in association with low neuron densities suggest they may collectively contribute to focal neurodegeneration characteristic of PPA-AD.

Data-Driven, Visual Framework for the Characterization of Aphasias Across Stroke, Post-resective, and Neurodegenerative Disorders Over Time

Aphasia classifications and specialized language batteries differ across the fields of neurodegenerative disorders and lesional brain injuries, resulting in difficult comparisons of language deficits across etiologies. In this study, we present a simplified framework, in which a widely-used aphasia battery captures clinical clusters across disease etiologies and provides a quantitative and visual method to characterize and track patients over time. The framework is used to evaluate populations representing three disease etiologies: stroke, primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and post-operative aphasia. A total of 330 patients across three populations with cerebral injury leading to aphasia were investigated, including 76 patients with stroke, 107 patients meeting criteria for PPA, and 147 patients following left hemispheric resective surgery. Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) measures (Information Content, Fluency, answering Yes/No questions, Auditory Word Recognition, Sequential Commands, and Repetition) were collected across the three populations and analyzed to develop a multi-dimensional aphasia model using dimensionality reduction techniques. Two orthogonal dimensions were found to explain 87% of the variance across aphasia phenotypes and three disease etiologies. The first dimension reflects shared weighting across aphasia subscores and correlated with aphasia severity. The second dimension incorporates fluency and comprehension, thereby separating Wernicke's from Broca's aphasia, and the non-fluent/agrammatic from semantic PPA variants. Clusters representing clinical classifications, including late PPA presentations, were preserved within the two-dimensional space. Early PPA presentations were not classifiable, as specialized batteries are needed for phenotyping. Longitudinal data was further used to visualize the trajectory of aphasias during recovery or disease progression, including the rapid recovery of post-operative aphasic patients. This method has implications for the conceptualization of aphasia as a spectrum disorder across different disease etiology and may serve as a framework to track the trajectories of aphasia progression and recovery.

Echolalia in patients with primary progressive aphasia

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine echolalia and its related symptoms and brain lesions in primary progressive aphasia (PPA).

METHODS

Forty-five patients with PPA were included: 19 nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA (nfvPPA), 5 semantic variant PPA, 7 logopenic variant PPA, and 14 unclassified PPA patients. We detected echolalia in unstructured conversations. An evaluation of language function and the presence of parkinsonism, grasp reflex, imitation behaviour, and disinhibition were assessed. We also measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using single-photon emission computed tomography.

RESULTS

Echolalia was observed in 12 nfvPPA and 2 unclassified PPA patients. All patients showed mitigated echolalia. We compared nfvPPA patients with echolalia (echolalia group) to those without echolalia (non-echolalia group). The median age of the echolalia group was significantly lower than that of the non-echolalia group, and the echolalia group showed a significantly worse auditory comprehension performance than the non-echolalia group. In contrast, the performance of repetition tasks was not different between the two groups. The prevalence of imitation behaviour in the echolalia group was significantly higher than that in the non-echolalia group. The rCBFs in the bilateral pre-supplementary motor area and bilateral middle cingulate cortex in the echolalia group were significantly lower than those in the non-echolalia group.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that echolalia is characteristic of nfvPPA patients with impaired comprehension. Reduced inhibition of the medial frontal cortex with release activity of the anterior perisylvian area account for the emergence of echolalia.

Language Breakdown in Primary Progressive Aphasias

Dementias with predominant language involvement, called primary progressive aphasias provide us with unique insight into systematic breakdown of language in neurodegenerative diseases and the structures and networks involved. Clinical and neuroimaging models quite distinct from those seen in stroke aphasias have evolved. In this short overview, we will discuss the cognitive processes involved in expressive and receptive verbal communication and how these processes are affected in the different variants of primary progressive aphasia producing distinctive clinical patterns. We will also discuss the brain's language network and how different components of the network break down in each of the primary progressive aphasia variants.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease with a Five-Year Clinical Course, Multicentric Cerebellar Prion Plaques and Prior History of Biopsy-Proven Primary Angiitis of the Central Nervous System: A Case for Iatrogenic Exposure?

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) is a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that can arise spontaneously, genetically, or be acquired through iatrogenic exposure. Most patients die within a year of symptom onset. It is rare, affecting 1–2 per million per year, and the majority of cases are sporadic. Primary angiitis of the central nervous system (PACNS) is also rare, affecting 2.4 per million per year. We present a case of an unusually long clinical course of CJD, almost five years, which began with symptoms of apraxia. The patient had biopsy-proven PACNS 16 years prior to clinical presentation, and the site of biopsy was the left parietal lobe. Autopsy revealed multicentric prion plaques in the cerebellum, in the setting of normal genetic testing. The presence of plaques in the cerebellum, and prior neurosurgery, raises the possibility of iatrogenic exposure. We present the details of this case, including pathology from the original biopsy and final autopsy, as well as a review of relevant cases in the literature.

High Frequency of Crossed Aphasia in Dextral in an Italian Cohort of Patients with Logopenic Primary Progressive Aphasia

BACKGROUND

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) has been described as a neurodegenerative language disorder mainly affecting the left hemisphere. Few cases of right hemisphere damage in right-handed PPA subjects have been reported. This condition, named crossed aphasia in dextral (CAD), is relatively rare and probably related to an alteration during neurodevelopment of language networks.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the prevalence of CAD in an Italian cohort of 68 PPA patients, in order to evaluate whether right hemisphere language lateralization could be a risk factor for PPA.

METHODS

Clinical-demographic and cerebral [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography ([18F]FDG-PET) scan were analyzed, resulting in 23 logopenic variant (lvPPA) patients, 26 non-fluent variant (nfvPPA) patients, and 19 semantic variant (svPPA) patients. SPM single subject routine was performed for diagnostic purposes in order to identify the hypometabolic pattern of each patient. Based on brain metabolic profile, PPA patients were divided in right and left lvPPA, nfvPPA, and svPPA. [18F]FDG-PET group analyses were performed with SPM two-sample t-test routine.

RESULTS

26% of lvPPA cases were identified as CAD based on right hypometabolic pattern. CAD patients did not differ from left lvPPA regarding demographic features and general cognitive performance; however, they performed better in specific working memory tasks and showed brain hypometabolism limited to the superior, middle, and supramarginal temporal gyri.

CONCLUSION

Atypical lateralization of language function could determine a vulnerability of the phonological language loop and in that way could be a risk factor for lvPPA.

Automated analysis of lexical features in Frontotemporal Degeneration

We implemented an automated analysis of lexical aspects of semi-structured speech produced by healthy elderly controls (n=37) and three patient groups with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD): behavioral variant FTD (n=74), semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA, n=42), and nonfluent/agrammatic PPA (naPPA, n=22). Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that the three patient groups and controls would differ in the counts of part-of-speech (POS) categories and several lexical measures. With a natural language processing program, we automatically tagged POS categories of all words produced during a picture description task. We further counted the number of wh -words, and we rated nouns for abstractness, ambiguity, frequency, familiarity, and age of acquisition. We also computed the cross-entropy estimation, which is a measure of word predictability, and lexical diversity for each description. We validated a subset of the POS data that were automatically tagged with the Google Universal POS scheme using gold-standard POS data tagged by a linguist, and we found that the POS categories from our automated methods were more than 90% accurate. For svPPA patients, we found fewer unique nouns than in naPPA and more pronouns and wh -words than in the other groups. We also found high abstractness, ambiguity, frequency, and familiarity for nouns and the lowest cross-entropy estimation among all groups. These measures were associated with cortical thinning in the left temporal lobe. In naPPA patients, we found increased speech errors and partial words compared to controls, and these impairments were associated with cortical thinning in the left middle frontal gyrus. bvFTD patients' adjective production was decreased compared to controls and was correlated with their apathy scores. Their adjective production was associated with cortical thinning in the dorsolateral frontal and orbitofrontal gyri. Our results demonstrate distinct language profiles in subgroups of FTD patients and validate our automated method of analyzing FTD patients' speech.

Progressive aphasia, apraxia of speech and agraphia in corticobasal degeneration: A 12-case series clinical and neuropsychological descriptive study

BACKGROUND

Despite initial underreporting of language dysfunctions in corticobasal syndrome (CBS), aphasia is now recognized as a frequent feature of this disease. Aphasia in CBS seems clinically overlying to a non-fluent/agrammatic primary progressive aphasia (nfaPPA), which is also a clinical phenotype associated with corticobasal degeneration (CBD) pathology. However, the clinical features of aphasia in CBS still remain poorly delineated, resulting in misjudgements in the differential diagnosis from a PPA presentation of the disease.

AIMS

To investigate the language disorders of this syndrome, also through a systematic examination of recoding skills (reading, written spelling and repetition) and articulatory disturbances, which have been rarely examined in previous studies.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

We present a clinical and neuropsychological descriptive study of the language impairments in a case series of 12 aphasic patients with a clinical diagnosis of CBS. Language assessment was conducted by means of the Esame NeuroPsicologico dell'Afasia, a comprehensive Italian battery for language functions, the Token Test, and the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

The language profile of the patients showed a severe expressive language disorder, characterized by non-fluent speech, apraxia of speech (AoS) with predominant stuttering-like dysfluencies, spatial/apraxic agraphia, lack of word-finding and defective sentence repetition. Severe limb apraxia, visual-spatial deficit and alien hand syndrome were also present. Neuroimaging showed bilateral left asymmetric atrophies and hypometabolism in the frontal premotor, parietal posterior and temporal areas.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These findings suggest that aphasia in CBS might present as a 'mixed PPA', instead of an nfaPPA as previously stated, showing a combination of features of the nfa and logopenic variants of the PPA, associated with AoS, stuttering and agraphia, which might be additional important cognitive markers for the clinical diagnosis of CBS and discriminating features of an nfaPPA presentation of a CBD. These results might also suggest specific intervention areas in the rehabilitation of patients with CBS. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject Language disorders in CBS patients usually present clinically overlying to an nfaPPA, which is also a clinical phenotype associated with CBD pathology, according to recent diagnostic criteria. However, the clinical features of aphasia in CBS still remain poorly delineated, and this raises difficulties and misjudgements for clinicians in the differential diagnosis from a PPA presentation of the disease. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This study shows that the language profile of our CBS patients was characterized by severe expressive language disorders, with non-fluent speech, apraxia of speech (AoS) with predominant stuttering-like dysfluencies, spatial/apraxic agraphia, lack of word-finding, and defective sentence repetition. These findings suggest that aphasia in CBS might present as a 'mixed PPA', rather than an nfaPPA as previously stated, showing a combination of features of the nfa and logopenic variants of the PPA associated with AoS, stuttering and agraphia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? These results suggest that AoS, stuttering and agraphia might be important additional cognitive markers for the clinical diagnosis of CBS, and discriminating features of an nfaPPA presentation of a CBD. The language disorders exhibited in the present study might also support speech and language therapists in targeting specific intervention areas in the rehabilitation of patients with CBS.

[C9orf72-associated frontotemporal dementia in the Russian population]

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the frequency of C9orf72-associated frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in the Russian population and to study clinical features of GGGGCC-repeat expansion carriers.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Twenty-eight patients with FTD are included in the study: 15 with a behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD) and 13 with a agrammatic/non-fluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (avPPA). The mean age was 62 years (34-80), the mean disease duration was 4 years (1-10). The positive family history was noted in 46% of cases. DNA diagnosis was performed using repeat-primed polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS

The frequency of the C9orf72 repeat expansion in patients with FTD was 14%, in patients with bvFTD 20%, in patients with avPPA 8%. The mean age of disease onset in the expansion carriers was 63 (55-75) years. The frequency of the C9orf72 repeats expansion in familial FTD cases was 31%, in sporadic cases 7%. bvFTD with parkinsonian syndrome was noted in two out of four cases, bvFTD with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was shown in one case, avPPA with ALS was shown in one case. One female patient with bvFTD with parkinsonian syndrome presented with cognitive fluctuations that required a differential diagnosis with Lewy body disease.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study of the genetic structure of FTD in the Russian population. The prevalence and clinical characteristics of C9orf72-associated FTD were defined, in particular, the spectrum of motor symptoms was shown along with behavioral and aphasic disturbances. DNA diagnosis plays an important role in confirming the diagnosis and selection of patients for potential disease-modifying treatment.

C9orf72 Repeat Expansion Does Not Affect the Phenotype in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) forms the spectrum of language variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), including three subtypes each consisting of distinctive speech and language features. Repeat expansion in C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of FTLD. However, thus far only little is known about the effects of the C9orf72 repeat expansion on the phenotype of PPA. This retrospective study aimed at determining the differences between the PPA phenotypes of the C9orf72 expansion carriers and non-carriers. Our results demonstrated no significant differences between these groups, indicating that the C9orf72 repeat expansion does not substantially affect the phenotype of PPA.

Establishing two principal dimensions of cognitive variation in logopenic progressive aphasia

Logopenic progressive aphasia is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by sentence repetition and naming difficulties arising from left-lateralized temporoparietal atrophy. Clinical descriptions of logopenic progressive aphasia largely concentrate on profiling language deficits, however, accumulating evidence points to the presence of cognitive deficits even on tasks with minimal language demands. Although non-linguistic cognitive deficits in logopenic progressive aphasia are thought to scale with disease severity, patients at discrete stages of language dysfunction display overlapping cognitive profiles, suggesting individual-level variation in cognitive performance, independent of primary language dysfunction. To address this issue, we used principal component analysis to decompose the individual-level variation in cognitive performance in 43 well-characterized logopenic progressive aphasia patients who underwent multi-domain neuropsychological assessments and structural neuroimaging. The principal component analysis solution revealed the presence of two, statistically independent factors, providing stable and clinically intuitive explanations for the majority of variance in cognitive performance in the syndrome. Factor 1 reflected 'speech production and verbal memory' deficits which typify logopenic progressive aphasia. Systematic variations were also confirmed on a second, orthogonal factor mainly comprising visuospatial and executive processes. Adopting a case-comparison approach, we further demonstrate that pairs of patients with comparable Factor 1 scores, regardless of their severity, diverge considerably on visuo-executive test performance, underscoring the inter-individual variability in cognitive profiles in comparably 'logopenic' patients. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that speech production and verbal memory factor scores correlated with left middle frontal gyrus, while visuospatial and executive factor scores were associated with grey matter intensity of right-lateralized temporoparietal, middle frontal regions and their underlying white matter connectivity. Importantly, logopenic progressive aphasia patients with poorer visuospatial and executive factor scores demonstrated greater right-lateralized temporoparietal and frontal atrophy. Our findings demonstrate the inherent variation in cognitive performance at an individual- and group-level in logopenic progressive aphasia, suggesting the presence of a genuine co-occurring cognitive impairment that is statistically independent of language function and disease severity.

Effects of bilingualism on age at onset in two clinical Alzheimer's disease variants

INTRODUCTION

The effect of bilingualism on age at onset has yet to be examined within different clinical variants of Alzheimer's disease.

METHODS

We reviewed the research charts of 287 well-characterized participants with either amnestic Alzheimer's dementia or logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) and identified bilingual speakers based on regular use of two or more languages and/or ability to communicate with native speakers in two or more languages. We evaluated whether bilingual speakers demonstrated a delay in age of symptom onset relative to monolingual speakers while controlling for other variables known to influence cognitive reserve.

RESULTS

A 5-year delay in age at symptom onset was observed for bilingual relative to monolingual speakers with lvPPA. This delay in onset was not observed in the amnestic Alzheimer's dementia cohort.

DISCUSSION

Bilingualism may serve as a unique cognitive reserve variable in lvPPA, but not in amnestic Alzheimer's dementia.

Effects of functional communication interventions for people with primary progressive aphasia and their caregivers: a systematic review

Objectives: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a language led dementia characterised by progressive speech and language difficulties. Impairment focused PPA interventions that seek to remediate, alleviate or improve symptoms, dominate the research literature. Yet speech and language therapists (SLTs) report prioritising functional communication interventions (FCIs), which target engagement in an activity and participation in life situations. This systematic review investigates the research literature on FCIs for PPA to identify the key components of these interventions and their effectiveness.Method: A systematic search of databases identified 19 studies published between 1998 and 2018. Data were extracted from the articles using the Intervention Taxonomy adaptation (ITAX).Results: Results show that the two most common components of FCIs are to build on communication strategies people currently use, and to practise these strategies with a communication partner. There are variations in the interventions, such as location and dosage. All 19 studies report improvements, of which eight report statistically significant results. Forty-two different measures are used across the 19 studies.Conclusion: This study highlights that building on existing strategies and practising these with a CP, are key components of FCIs for people with PPA, yet there remains a lack of clarity around optimal dosage. Further rigorous research using a core set of outcome measures is a priority in this area.

Efficacy of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (tDCS or TMS) Paired with Language Therapy in the Treatment of Primary Progressive Aphasia: An Exploratory Meta-Analysis

Noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), paired with behavioral language therapy, have demonstrated the capacity to enhance language abilities in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a debilitating degenerative neurological syndrome that leads to declines in communication abilities. The aim of this meta-analysis is to systematically evaluate the efficacy of tDCS and TMS in improving language outcomes in PPA, explore the magnitude of effects between stimulation modalities, and examine potential moderators that may influence treatment effects. Standard mean differences for change in performance from baseline to post-stimulation on language-related tasks were evaluated. Six tDCS studies and two repetitive TMS studies met inclusion criteria and provided 22 effects in the analysis. Random effect models revealed a significant, heterogeneous, and moderate effect size for tDCS and TMS in the enhancement of language outcomes. Findings demonstrate that naming ability significantly improves due to brain stimulation, an effect found to be largely driven by tDCS. Future randomized controlled trials are needed to determine long-term effectiveness of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques on language abilities, further delineate the efficacy of tDCS and TMS, and identify optimal parameters to enable the greatest gains for persons with PPA.