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Speech perception and language comprehension in primary progressive aphasia
Heather R Dial1, Rachel Tessmer2, Maya L Henry3
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA; Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
Summary
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) affects speech and language. This study reveals distinct receptive processing deficits across PPA variants, aiding diagnosis and intervention strategies for these neurodegenerative language disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
- Neurology
Background:
- Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disorder causing progressive language loss.
- Receptive language deficits in PPA, including speech perception and comprehension, are understudied compared to production deficits.
- A systematic investigation across sublexical, lexical, and semantic processing levels in a single PPA cohort was lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically investigate sublexical, lexical, and semantic processing in individuals with logopenic, nonfluent, and semantic variants of PPA.
- To characterize the distinct receptive language profiles of each PPA subtype.
- To provide insights for differential diagnosis and intervention models for PPA.
Main Methods:
- Participants included individuals with logopenic, nonfluent, and semantic PPA variants and healthy controls.
- Tasks administered: minimal pairs syllable discrimination (sublexical), auditory lexical decision (lexical), and picture-word verification (semantic).
- Error analysis of the picture-word verification task (phonological and semantic) provided further detail on processing deficits.
Main Results:
- Logopenic variant PPA showed impaired auditory lexical decision and picture-word verification, with a trend toward impaired syllable discrimination.
- Nonfluent and semantic variant PPA demonstrated impaired performance on auditory lexical decision and picture-word verification tasks.
- Distinct deficit profiles emerged: logopenic PPA exhibited lexical-phonological, lexical-semantic, and semantic deficits; semantic PPA showed lexical-semantic and semantic deficits; nonfluent PPA displayed lexical-phonological deficits.
Conclusions:
- This study precisely characterizes the linguistic profiles of PPA subtypes regarding speech perception and language comprehension.
- Findings highlight specific receptive processing deficits at sublexical, lexical, and semantic levels for each PPA variant.
- The observed patterns of deficits offer potential for differential diagnosis and inform therapeutic intervention strategies for PPA.
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