Scientists have identified three types ofprimary progressive aphasia(PPA), based on the distinct symptom profiles the condition can cause. This article covers the similarities and differences between each type.
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What Causes PPA?
Along with language impairments, people with PPA may develop behavior and personality changes. They may become confused or disoriented as people and objects become less familiar. Some people may become depressed, anxious, or apathetic.
Speech therapy helps PPA patients maintain language skills that are intact and find ways to cope with language skills that are impaired. The more you learnabout PPA, the more prepared you will be to manage its symptoms.
Types of Primary Progressive Aphasia
There are three main PPA variants: logopenic, nonfluent, and semantic. Not everyone will fit the exact criteria for one specific variant. Individuals who don’t are diagnosed as having unclassifiable PPA.
Knowing whether or not you have a certain PPA variant can help you manage your symptoms and prepare for what problems you might encounter as your condition progresses.
Logopenic Variant PPA (lvPPA)
Logopenic variant PPA is the most common of the three main variants, affecting an estimated 42% of people with a PPA variant.
People with lvPPA have the motor and grammar skills to articulate their words, however, they tend to produce fragmented sentences because they often can’t find the right words to say.In fact, the word “logopenia,” derived from Greek, means “lack of words.”Someone with the logopenic PPA variant may also:
The most notable distinction in individuals with lvPPA is their impairedworking memory. They may be able to recognize a person or object without any problem, but they will regularly find themselves unable to retrieve the right word for that object or person from their memory.
Nonfluent Variant PPA (nfvPPA)
Nonfluent variant PPA (nfvPPA), also known as agrammatic variant PPA, is the second most common variant, affecting an estimated 36% of people with a PPA variant.
This variant is distinct in how it impairs a person’s grammar skills along with the motor skills needed to pronounce words.
A person with the nonfluent variant may need to talk very slowly, as it is more difficult for them to configure sentences in their mind and then form the words with their mouth.
They may also have trouble with:
Some people with nfvPPA describe a feeling of knowing what they want to say, but being unable to control their lips, jaw, ortongueto actually say it.
Semantic Variant PPA (svPPA)
Semantic variant PPA is the least common variant of the three, affecting an estimated 22% of people with a PPA variant.
The notable features of svPPA are difficulty recalling the names of everyday objects and comprehending the meaning of words.For example, someone with this variant may be having a normal conversation when suddenly a once familiar word like “watermelon” sounds completely foreign to them.
Someone with svPPA may also:
Despite these impairments, a person with svPPA will often have most other cognitive abilities intact; they may remember life events easily, engage in complex hobbies, or find their way around without difficulty.
Summary
Whereas someone with nonfluent PPA may have trouble pronouncing words and stringing sentences together, someone with logopenic PPA may find it difficult to retrieve words from memory. Meanwhile, someone with semantic PPA may get lost in conversations, unable to comprehend what words mean.
A Word From Verywell
Learning that you have been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia can be frightening. Although expressing yourself and your needs will become more challenging as time passes, yourdiagnosisalso presents an opportunity to get creative with how you communicate your thoughts and feelings. In fact, some people find that art therapy is an excellent way to supplement speech therapy, while others reinvent themselves through forms of expression they never thought to try before.
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8 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Northwestern Medicine. Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.Symptoms & causes of PPA.Fatemi Y, Boeve B, Duffy J.Neuropsychiatric aspects of primary progressive aphasia.JNCN. 2011 Apr;23(2):168-172. doi:10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnp168Tippett DC.Classification of primary progressive aphasia: challenges and complexities.F1000Res. 2020 Jan;9(1):1-9. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21184.1Tastevin M, Lavoie M, de la Sablonnière, Carrier-Auclair J, Laforce Jr. R.Survival in three common variants of primary progressive aphasia: a retrospective study in a tertiary memory clinic.Brain Sci. 2021 Aug;11(1):1-10. doi:10.3390/brainsci11091113Johnson JCS, Jiang J, Bond RL, et al.Impaired phonemic discrimination in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia.Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2020 Jul;7(7):1252-7. doi:10.1002/acn3.51101Grossman M.The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia.Lancet Neurol. 2012 Jun;11(6):545-55. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70099-6Iaccarino L, Crespi, Della Rosa PA, et al.The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia: clinical and neuroimaging evidence in single subjects.PLoS One. 2015;10(3):1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120197Teichmann M, Sanches C, Moreau J, et al.Does surface dyslexia/dysgraphia relate to semantic deficits in the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia?Neuropsychologia.2019 Dec;135:107241. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107241
8 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Northwestern Medicine. Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.Symptoms & causes of PPA.Fatemi Y, Boeve B, Duffy J.Neuropsychiatric aspects of primary progressive aphasia.JNCN. 2011 Apr;23(2):168-172. doi:10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnp168Tippett DC.Classification of primary progressive aphasia: challenges and complexities.F1000Res. 2020 Jan;9(1):1-9. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21184.1Tastevin M, Lavoie M, de la Sablonnière, Carrier-Auclair J, Laforce Jr. R.Survival in three common variants of primary progressive aphasia: a retrospective study in a tertiary memory clinic.Brain Sci. 2021 Aug;11(1):1-10. doi:10.3390/brainsci11091113Johnson JCS, Jiang J, Bond RL, et al.Impaired phonemic discrimination in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia.Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2020 Jul;7(7):1252-7. doi:10.1002/acn3.51101Grossman M.The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia.Lancet Neurol. 2012 Jun;11(6):545-55. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70099-6Iaccarino L, Crespi, Della Rosa PA, et al.The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia: clinical and neuroimaging evidence in single subjects.PLoS One. 2015;10(3):1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120197Teichmann M, Sanches C, Moreau J, et al.Does surface dyslexia/dysgraphia relate to semantic deficits in the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia?Neuropsychologia.2019 Dec;135:107241. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107241
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Northwestern Medicine. Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.Symptoms & causes of PPA.Fatemi Y, Boeve B, Duffy J.Neuropsychiatric aspects of primary progressive aphasia.JNCN. 2011 Apr;23(2):168-172. doi:10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnp168Tippett DC.Classification of primary progressive aphasia: challenges and complexities.F1000Res. 2020 Jan;9(1):1-9. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21184.1Tastevin M, Lavoie M, de la Sablonnière, Carrier-Auclair J, Laforce Jr. R.Survival in three common variants of primary progressive aphasia: a retrospective study in a tertiary memory clinic.Brain Sci. 2021 Aug;11(1):1-10. doi:10.3390/brainsci11091113Johnson JCS, Jiang J, Bond RL, et al.Impaired phonemic discrimination in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia.Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2020 Jul;7(7):1252-7. doi:10.1002/acn3.51101Grossman M.The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia.Lancet Neurol. 2012 Jun;11(6):545-55. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70099-6Iaccarino L, Crespi, Della Rosa PA, et al.The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia: clinical and neuroimaging evidence in single subjects.PLoS One. 2015;10(3):1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120197Teichmann M, Sanches C, Moreau J, et al.Does surface dyslexia/dysgraphia relate to semantic deficits in the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia?Neuropsychologia.2019 Dec;135:107241. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107241
Northwestern Medicine. Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease.Symptoms & causes of PPA.
Fatemi Y, Boeve B, Duffy J.Neuropsychiatric aspects of primary progressive aphasia.JNCN. 2011 Apr;23(2):168-172. doi:10.1176/jnp.23.2.jnp168
Tippett DC.Classification of primary progressive aphasia: challenges and complexities.F1000Res. 2020 Jan;9(1):1-9. doi:10.12688/f1000research.21184.1
Tastevin M, Lavoie M, de la Sablonnière, Carrier-Auclair J, Laforce Jr. R.Survival in three common variants of primary progressive aphasia: a retrospective study in a tertiary memory clinic.Brain Sci. 2021 Aug;11(1):1-10. doi:10.3390/brainsci11091113
Johnson JCS, Jiang J, Bond RL, et al.Impaired phonemic discrimination in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia.Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2020 Jul;7(7):1252-7. doi:10.1002/acn3.51101
Grossman M.The non-fluent/agrammatic variant of primary progressive aphasia.Lancet Neurol. 2012 Jun;11(6):545-55. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(12)70099-6
Iaccarino L, Crespi, Della Rosa PA, et al.The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia: clinical and neuroimaging evidence in single subjects.PLoS One. 2015;10(3):1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0120197
Teichmann M, Sanches C, Moreau J, et al.Does surface dyslexia/dysgraphia relate to semantic deficits in the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia?Neuropsychologia.2019 Dec;135:107241. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107241
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