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Multiple Choice

Which primary progressive aphasia variant is characterized by impaired naming?

Naming impairment is most characteristic of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (semantic dementia). In this form, the semantic knowledge that underpins word meanings and object identities deteriorates, so patients struggle to retrieve the correct names for items even though their speech remains fluent. They may speak in long, well-formed sentences but with empty content and show poor single-word comprehension as the semantic system degrades. This pattern distinguishes it from the other variants: the nonfluent form mainly causes effortful, halting speech with agrammatism; the logopenic form features frequent word-finding pauses and impaired repetition due to phonological processing deficits; Alzheimer's disease can cause language problems but is not a primary language-presentation variant like semantic dementia.

Naming impairment is most characteristic of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (semantic dementia). In this form, the semantic knowledge that underpins word meanings and object identities deteriorates, so patients struggle to retrieve the correct names for items even though their speech remains fluent. They may speak in long, well-formed sentences but with empty content and show poor single-word comprehension as the semantic system degrades. This pattern distinguishes it from the other variants: the nonfluent form mainly causes effortful, halting speech with agrammatism; the logopenic form features frequent word-finding pauses and impaired repetition due to phonological processing deficits; Alzheimer's disease can cause language problems but is not a primary language-presentation variant like semantic dementia.