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Verbal Short-Term Memory Disturbance in the Primary Progressive Aphasias: Challenges and Distinctions in a Clinical Setting

Authors :
Sau Chi Cheung
Olivier Piguet
Rebekah M. Ahmed
David Foxe
Muireann Irish
Cathleen Taylor-Rubin
James R. Burrell
Nicholas J Cordato
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.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20763425
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Brain Sciences
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....9f5faf8ba70cf1cb1bbc066d10869066
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11081060