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Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1988 Sep;51(9):1201–1207. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.9.1201

Progressive language impairment without dementia: a case with isolated category specific semantic defect.

A Basso 1, E Capitani 1, M Laiacona 1
PMCID: PMC1033027  PMID: 2465388

Abstract

A patient is described with a 5 year progressive defect of naming and auditory verbal comprehension, the pathological nature of which was presumably degenerative. The auditory comprehension defect unevenly affected different semantic categories, and was particularly severe for the names of animals, fruits and vegetables. The patients showed loss of the verbal knowledge of the physical attributes of the concepts corresponding to the words he was unable to understand, and sparing of the verbal knowledge of the functional attributes. His performance was defective also on the colour-figure and sound-picture matching test.

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Selected References

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