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Cited by 30Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismAmyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research

Longitudinal Changes in Semantic Concreteness in Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA)

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Cousins, Katheryn A. Q., Ash, Sharon, Olm, Christopher A., Grossman, Murray·2018·eneuro
DOI 10.1523/eneuro.0197-18.2018PMC PMC6377408
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Abstract

This study examines longitudinal changes in the concreteness of nouns produced by human patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). Cross-sectional studies show that patients with svPPA demonstrate severe loss of concrete noun knowledge linked to atrophy of the left ventral temporal lobe. It is unknown how disease spread and duration affect the magnitude of the concreteness impairment in svPPA. We evaluate longitudinal spoken production of concrete nouns in svPPA, and relate this to changes in longitudinal MRI measures of gray matter (GM). Noun concreteness in svPPA is compared to that of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, who typically demonstrate highly concrete speech. We elicited naturalistic speech samples at two time points (time 1 and time 2) in patients with svPPA (n= 11) and bvFTD (n= 15) through descriptions of the Cookie Theft picture and evaluated each spoken noun for concreteness. Compared to bvFTD patients whose noun production remained highly concrete throughout the testing period, mixed-effects models revealed that noun concreteness significantly decreased as disease progressed in svPPA. We also measured longitudinal changes to GM in a subset of svPPA patients (n= 7), who showed significant decline in the left and right temporal and frontal regions. Regression analyses revealed that longitudinal GM atrophy in the right fusiform and parahippocampal gyri and the left superior temporal gyrus was related to decreasing noun concreteness. These results suggest that progressive atrophy of the ventral temporal lobe in svPPA contributes to declining concrete noun production over time.

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  • Atrophy in the left anterior temporal lobe is associated with increased word frequency in patients with FTD.

    “previous studies have shown that atrophy in this region is associated with increased word frequency in patients with FTD. 35 , 44 , 55 , 56”

    From Automatic classification of AD pathology in FTD phenotypes using natural speech (2024) · cites this paper as [55]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) describes left anterior temporal atrophy in svPPA, and the Discussion (page unavailable) links temporal atrophy to declining noun concreteness. Neither establishes an association with increased word frequency; searches for word frequency, lexical frequency, and high-frequency words found no passage addressing that relationship. (LLM, conf=0.76)

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Authors
Cousins, K. A. Q., Ash, S., Olm, C. A., & Grossman, M.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Corresponding author
  • Cousins, Katheryn A. Q.
  • Grossman, Murray
ORCID
Venue
eneuro
Publisher
Society for Neuroscience
Published
2018-11
Volume
5
Issue
6
Pages
ENEURO.0197-18.2018
ISSN
2373-2822 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1523/eneuro.0197-18.2018
PMC
PMC6377408
OpenAlex
W2906215493
Cited by
30
References
4
Citations by year
2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2
FWCI
2.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • eNeuro (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • HHS | NIH | National Institute on Aging (AG017586, AG052943)
  • HHS | NIH | National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (DC013063)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research
Keywords
semantic dementia, concrete nouns, longitudinal change, behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia, gray matter atrophy, fusiform gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, speech production, disease progression
MeSH terms
Aged, Atrophy, Brain, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Semantics, Speech, Aphasia, Primary Progressive, Gray Matter

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