Which primary progressive aphasia variant is characterized by impaired repetition?

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Multiple Choice

Which primary progressive aphasia variant is characterized by impaired repetition?

Repetition relies on phonological working memory and intact posterior language pathways. In the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia, those phonological processing systems are specifically undermined, leading to marked trouble repeating heard speech, especially longer phrases or sentences. The degeneration in the left temporoparietal region disrupts encoding and temporary storage of phonological information, so repetition becomes the standout deficit even when other language skills like single-word understanding and object knowledge are relatively preserved early on. Patients often speak slowly with pauses due to word-finding problems, but grammar remains fairly intact at first, and comprehension of individual words can be preserved. By comparison, the nonfluent/agrammatic variant centers on production difficulties marked by effortful speech and apraxia of speech, with repetition not the defining feature. Semantic dementia primarily disrupts meaning and naming, with fluent speech and relatively preserved repetition early on. Alzheimer's disease can involve language deficits but is not categorized by a primary, early repetition impairment in the same way as the logopenic PPA variant.

Repetition relies on phonological working memory and intact posterior language pathways. In the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia, those phonological processing systems are specifically undermined, leading to marked trouble repeating heard speech, especially longer phrases or sentences. The degeneration in the left temporoparietal region disrupts encoding and temporary storage of phonological information, so repetition becomes the standout deficit even when other language skills like single-word understanding and object knowledge are relatively preserved early on. Patients often speak slowly with pauses due to word-finding problems, but grammar remains fairly intact at first, and comprehension of individual words can be preserved.

By comparison, the nonfluent/agrammatic variant centers on production difficulties marked by effortful speech and apraxia of speech, with repetition not the defining feature. Semantic dementia primarily disrupts meaning and naming, with fluent speech and relatively preserved repetition early on. Alzheimer's disease can involve language deficits but is not categorized by a primary, early repetition impairment in the same way as the logopenic PPA variant.

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