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Aphasia in neurodegenerative conditions

Sharon Savage1, 2*
  • 1 University of Exeter, United Kingdom
  • 2 Department of Psychology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Progressive communication difficulties arise in many degenerative dementias, causing significant impact upon patients and families (Ruggero et al., 2019). This occurs most obviously in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) (Gorno-Tempini et al., 2011), wherein three specific subtypes have been described, but also occurs within other forms of progressive disease. In these cases, communication decline may be significant, but not the presenting or dominant symptom, such as in Parkinson’s disease (Liu et al., 2015), Posterior Cortical Atrophy (Crutch et al., 2013), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (Burrell et al., 2018) or Cortico-basal Syndrome (McMonagle et al., 2006). This symposium will examine practical issues regarding person-centred approaches to care, which are ecologically structured, with an emphasis on co-production. To begin, we will raise issues regarding our understanding of how different types of PPA progress, with the introduction of a new clinical staging system which draws upon the lived experience of patients and their families (Speaker: Dr Chris Hardy). The importance of consulting with patients and families will then be further examined by discussing the experience of what it means to living positively with a diagnosis of PPA (Speaker: Ms Leanne Ruggero). The second half of the symposium will then directly address issues regarding current intervention practices, both in harnessing current technology (apps) to help families create, modify and implement personalised approaches to word retrieval therapy (Speaker: Dr Sharon Savage), as well as considering the need to approach therapy with both the person with dementia and their conversation partner (Speaker: Ms Anna Volkmer). Lastly, we will consider aspects of progressive communication decline in non-primary progressive aphasias, discussing the value of analysing speech errors and connected speech to assist care planning, and how recent developments in the non-pharmacological treatment of PPA may benefit other patient groups in the dementia care pathway who have progressive communication disorders (Speaker: Dr Aida Suarez-Gonzalez).

Acknowledgements

Please see individual abstracts for specific acknowledgements for each paper within the symposium,

References

Burrell, J. R., Ballard, K. J., Halliday, G. M., and Hodges, J. R. (2018). Aphasia in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: As Severe as Progressive Non-Fluent Aphasia. J. Alzheimers Dis. 61, 705–715. doi:10.3233/JAD-170743. Crutch, S. J., Lehmann, M., Warren, J. D., and Rohrer, J. D. (2013). The language profile of posterior cortical atrophy. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 84, 460–466. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2012-303309. Gorno-Tempini, M. L., Hillis, A. E., Weintraub, S., Kertesz, A., Mendez, M., Cappa, S. F., et al. (2011). Classification of primary progressive aphasia and its variants. Neurology 76, 1006–1014. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31821103e6. Liu, L., Luo, X.-G., Dy, C.-L., Ren, Y., Feng, Y., Yu, H.-M., et al. (2015). Characteristics of language impairment in Parkinson’s disease and its influencing factors. Transl Neurodegener 4, 2. doi:10.1186/2047-9158-4-2. McMonagle, P., Blair, M., and Kertesz, A. (2006). Corticobasal degeneration and progressive aphasia. Neurology 67, 1444–1451. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000240215.43492.01. Ruggero, L., Nickels, L., and Croot, K. (2019). Quality of life in primary progressive aphasia: What do we know and what can we do next? Aphasiology 0, 1–22. doi:10.1080/02687038.2019.1568135.

Keywords: Progressive aphasia, person-centred care, Dementia - speech- and language therapy, primary progressive aphasia, Co-production, Lived experience (of the illness), Language intervention research

Conference: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting, Macau, Macao, SAR China, 27 Oct - 29 Oct, 2019.

Presentation Type: Symposium

Topic: Not eligible for student award

Citation: Savage S (2019). Aphasia in neurodegenerative conditions. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.01.00054

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Received: 06 May 2019; Published Online: 09 Oct 2019.

* Correspondence: Dr. Sharon Savage, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, s.a.savage@exeter.ac.uk