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Behavioural and neuroanatomical correlates of auditory speech analysis in primary progressive aphasias.
- Source :
-
Alzheimer's research & therapy [Alzheimers Res Ther] 2017 Jul 27; Vol. 9 (1), pp. 53. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Jul 27. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Background: Non-verbal auditory impairment is increasingly recognised in the primary progressive aphasias (PPAs) but its relationship to speech processing and brain substrates has not been defined. Here we addressed these issues in patients representing the non-fluent variant (nfvPPA) and semantic variant (svPPA) syndromes of PPA.<br />Methods: We studied 19 patients with PPA in relation to 19 healthy older individuals. We manipulated three key auditory parameters-temporal regularity, phonemic spectral structure and prosodic predictability (an index of fundamental information content, or entropy)-in sequences of spoken syllables. The ability of participants to process these parameters was assessed using two-alternative, forced-choice tasks and neuroanatomical associations of task performance were assessed using voxel-based morphometry of patients' brain magnetic resonance images.<br />Results: Relative to healthy controls, both the nfvPPA and svPPA groups had impaired processing of phonemic spectral structure and signal predictability while the nfvPPA group additionally had impaired processing of temporal regularity in speech signals. Task performance correlated with standard disease severity and neurolinguistic measures. Across the patient cohort, performance on the temporal regularity task was associated with grey matter in the left supplementary motor area and right caudate, performance on the phoneme processing task was associated with grey matter in the left supramarginal gyrus, and performance on the prosodic predictability task was associated with grey matter in the right putamen.<br />Conclusions: Our findings suggest that PPA syndromes may be underpinned by more generic deficits of auditory signal analysis, with a distributed cortico-subcortical neuraoanatomical substrate extending beyond the canonical language network. This has implications for syndrome classification and biomarker development.
- Subjects :
- Acoustic Stimulation
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Brain diagnostic imaging
Cohort Studies
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Mental Status Schedule
Middle Aged
Psychoacoustics
Aphasia, Primary Progressive complications
Aphasia, Primary Progressive diagnostic imaging
Aphasia, Primary Progressive pathology
Aphasia, Primary Progressive psychology
Brain pathology
Cognition Disorders complications
Speech
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1758-9193
- Volume :
- 9
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Alzheimer's research & therapy
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 28750682
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-017-0278-2