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Verbal Short-Term Memory Disturbance in the Primary Progressive Aphasias: Challenges and Distinctions in a Clinical Setting
- Source :
- Brain Sciences, Volume 11, Issue 8, Brain Sciences, Vol 11, Iss 1060, p 1060 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Impaired verbal ‘phonological’ short-term memory is considered a cardinal feature of the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia (lv-PPA) and is assumed to underpin most of the language deficits in this syndrome. Clinically, examination of verbal short-term memory in individuals presenting with PPA is common practice and serves two objectives: (i) to help understand the possible mechanisms underlying the patient’s language profile and (ii) to help differentiate lv-PPA from other PPA variants or from other dementia syndromes. Distinction between lv-PPA and the non-fluent variant of PPA (nfv-PPA), however, can be especially challenging due to overlapping language profiles and comparable psychometric performances on verbal short-term memory tests. Here, we present case vignettes of the three PPA variants (lv-PPA, nfv-PPA, and the semantic variant (sv-PPA)) and typical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These vignettes provide a detailed description of the short-term and working memory profiles typically found in these patients and highlight how speech output and language comprehension deficits across the PPA variants differentially interfere with verbal memory performance. We demonstrate that a combination of verbal short-term and working memory measures provides crucial information regarding the cognitive mechanisms underlying language disturbances in PPA. In addition, we propose that analogous visuospatial span tasks are essential for the assessment of PPA as they measure memory capacity without language contamination.
- Subjects :
- neuropsychology
Short-term memory
Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
frontotemporal dementia
Article
050105 experimental psychology
working memory
Primary progressive aphasia
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
visuospatial
span
medicine
Dementia
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Working memory
General Neuroscience
sentence repetition
05 social sciences
Neuropsychology
phonological
Cognition
medicine.disease
Comprehension
primary progressive aphasia
Verbal memory
Psychology
Alzheimer’s disease
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
RC321-571
Cognitive psychology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20763425
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Brain Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9f5faf8ba70cf1cb1bbc066d10869066
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11081060