Retained capacity for perceptual learning of degraded speech in primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease

Chris J. D. Hardy; Charles R. Marshall; Rebecca L. Bond; Lucy L. Russell; Katrina Dick; Cono Ariti; David L. Thomas; Sonya J. Ross; Jennifer L. Agustus; Sebastian J. Crutch; Jonathan D. Rohrer; Doris-Eva Bamiou; Jason D. Warren

doi:10.1186/s13195-018-0399-2

Alzheimer's Research & Therapy

Table 1 Demographic, clinical and general neuropsychological data for the participant groups

From: Retained capacity for perceptual learning of degraded speech in primary progressive aphasia and Alzheimer’s disease

	Controls	nfvPPA	svPPA	lvPPA	tAD
Demographic and clinical
No. of participants, M/F	8/9	3/6	7/3	6/1	4/6
Age, years	67.7 (5.2)	69.6 (9.2)	64.9 (7.6)	66.3 (6.1)	70.5 (8.9)
Handedness (R/L/A)	16/0/1	8/1/0	10/0/0	7/0/0	9/1/0
Education, years	16.2 (2.6)	14.9 (3.3)	14.8 (3.3)	15.1 (2.3)	14.0 (1.8)
MMSE (total possible score of 30)	29.7 (0.5)	24.4 (5.1)	25.2 (5.3)	18.4 (8.0)	19.1 (5.1)
Symptom duration, years	NA	3.6 (1.3)	5.3 (2.0)	3.3 (1.3)	6.1 (3.1)
PTA best ear (N/mild/moderate)	4/11/0^a	1/6/1^b	4/6/0	3/2/1^b	2/5/0^c
General intellect (IQ)
WASI Verbal IQ	127.6 (5.9)	76.4 (17.7)	67.5 (22.4)	60.6 (8.3)	91.8 (19.3)
WASI Performance IQ	121.7 (13.7)	100.3 (21.8)	110.1 (21.8)	79.4 (13.1)	84.7 (20.3) ^b
Episodic memory
RMT Words (total possible score of 50)	48.4 (1.9)	40.3 (7.3) ^a	33.4 (5.7) ^d	31.0 (7.3) ^a	15.7 (3.5) ^b,e
RMT Faces (total possible score of 50)	44.5 (4.4)	39.1 (4.0)^a	35.0 (6.2) ^c	31.7 (5.2)	18.2 (3.2) ^b,e
Working memory
Digit span forward (maximum)	7.2 (1.0)	4.6 (1.4)	7.2 (1.2)	4.0 (1.3) ^b	6.2 (0.9)
Spatial span forward (maximum)	5.5 (0.8)^a	4.8 (1.2)	5.5 (0.9)	3.3 (0.8)	NA
Executive skills
Digit span reverse (maximum)	5.1 (1.1)	3.0 (0.9) ^b	5.4 (2.1)	2.6 (0.9) ^a	3.8 (0.8) ^b
Spatial span reverse (maximum)	5.4 (0.9)^a	3.8 (1.5)	5.2 (1.2)	3.0 (1.0)	NA
Letter fluency (total)	18.4 (5.1)	6.2 (6.0)	10.2 (4.5) ^b	4.5 (6.5) ^c	9.9 (6.0)
Category fluency (total)	25.6 (5.4)	9.7 (4.9)	17.6 (37.2) ^b	5.0 (7.5)	6.3 (4.9)
Trails Making Test A (seconds)	31.8 (8.0)	71.3 (36.9)	45.1 (37.2)	79.2 (37.6) ^a	92.8 (40.6) ^a
Posterior cortical skills
GDA Calculation (total possible score of 24)	13.6 (4.1)	6.0 (6.4) ^b	15.0 (7.3)^a	3.0 (2.2) ^c	3.4 (4.4) ^c
VOSP Object Decision (total possible score of 20)	18.9 (1.0)	17.4 (1.9)	16.2 (3.1)	15.3 (2.6)	15.5 (2.3)
Neurolinguistic skills
Auditory input processing
PALPA-3 (total possible score of 36)	35.1 (1.1)^a	34.6 (2.3)	35.3 (1.0)	31.1 (5.2)	NA
Word retrieval
GNT (total possible score of 30)	27.1 (2.5)	13.8 (4.8) ^a	1.2 (2.2) ^d	9.3 (10.3)	12.7 (9.2) ^b
BNT (total possible score of 30)	29.4 (0.6)^a	22.0 (5.0)	6.4 (5.2) ^a	9.9 (8.5)	NA
Comprehension
BPVS (total possible score of 51)	48.3 (5.6)	33.3 (14.9)	9.5 (14.8)	29.3 (7.3)	40.1 (5.5) ^b
Synonyms concrete (total possible score of 25)	24.5 (0.6)^a	19.0 (4.2) ^b	16.6 (3.3) ^c	17.7 (2.8)	NA
Synonyms abstract (total possible score of 25)	24.5 (0.8)^a	19.3 (4.5) ^b	15.6 (3.6) ^c	17.8 (4.0) ^b	NA
PALPA-55 (total possible score of 24)	23.9 (0.4)^a	19.1 (4.5)	22.3 (2.1)^c	15.7 (4.9)	NA
Speech repetition
Polysyllabic words (total possible score of 45)	44.8 (0.9)^a	35.1 (3.6) ^b	48.9 (0.6)	34.5 (2.6)	NA
Short sentences (total possible score of 10)	9.7 (0.6)^a	4.0 (2.9) ^a	7.8 (1.7) ^a	4.6 (2.2)	NA
Spelling
BST (total possible score of 30)	26.6 (1.6)^a	14.2 (8.0)	13.0 (7.5) ^b	13.0 (7.3) ^b	NA

Abbreviations: A Ambidextrous, BNT Boston Naming Test [52], BPVS British Picture Vocabulary Scale [53], BST Baxter Spelling Test (Baxter & Warrington, 1994), Controls healthy control group, Digit span forward/ reverse Maximum digit span recorded [54], F Female, GDA Graded Difficulty Arithmetic [55], GNT Graded Naming Test [56], IQ Intelligence Quotient, L left, lvPPA Patient group with logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia, M Male, MMSE Mini Mental State Examination [57], N Normal, NA, Not available, nfvPPA Patient group with non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia, PALPA Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing in Aphasia [58], PTA Pure-tone average, R Right, RMT Recognition Memory Test [59], Spatial span forward/ reverse Maximum spatial span recorded [54], svPPA Patient group with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, Synonyms concrete/abstract Single-word comprehension of single words [60], tAD Patient group with clinically typical Alzheimer’s disease, Trail Making Test A, Part A of the Trail Making Test [61], VOSP Visual Object Space Perception [62], WASI Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence [63]
Mean (SD) values are shown. Raw scores are presented, with the maximum value possible given in parentheses, unless otherwise indicated; significant differences from healthy controls (p < 0.05) are shown in boldface type. Reduced numbers of participants completing particular tests were as indicated: ^an − 2; ^bn − 1; ^cn − 3; ^dn − 4
^eNote that tAD participants were given the short form of the RMT (maximum score of 25)

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