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American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias logoLink to American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
. 2008 Aug-Sep;23(4):363–371. doi: 10.1177/1533317508320351

Cognitive Deficits and Reduced Insight in Primary Progressive Aphasia

Sarah Jane Banks 1, Sandra Weintraub 2
PMCID: PMC2743890  NIHMSID: NIHMS128101  PMID: 18836134

Abstract

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a form of dementia caused by frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Unlike aphasia due to stroke, in which the association between particular aphasia profiles and insight has been well characterized, this relationship has not been investigated in PPA. Reduced insight is seen in other neurological conditions, but tends to involve right hemisphere damage, whereas PPA is predominantly a left hemisphere disorder. The aim of the current study was to examine whether fluent aphasia with less meaningful speech output, associated with diminished insight in stroke, is also characteristic of PPA patients with reduced insight. Fourteen PPA patients were studied. Results indicated that reduced information content in speech and poor performance on a nonlanguage test, the Pyramids and Palm Trees test, predicted reduced insight. This study has implications for the anatomical network involved in insight and clinical implications in terms of selecting interventions appropriate for individual patients with PPA.

Keywords: dementia, primary progressive aphasia, insight, awareness, frontotemporal dementia

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Contributor Information

Sarah Jane Banks, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, sarah.banks@mail.mcgill.ca .

Sandra Weintraub, Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

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