View clinical trials related to Primary Progressive Aphasia.
Filter by:This study is designed to learn more about overall tau burden in the brain of patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and Frontotemporal Dementia.
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects first and foremost language abilities. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is slowly progressive decline in a single domain of cognition (e.g. language) not attributable to motor or sensory loss, without impediment of social or occupational function. MCI can be an early sign of neurodegenerative disease, or can be due to normal aging. When language is the prominent affected domain in MCI, the person may later meet criteria for PPA or may progress to the clinical syndrome of Alzheimer's dementia. Spelling, naming, and working memory (e.g. repetition) are among the language abilities affected early in the course of PPA or language-centered MCI, and different variants have distinct deficits in these domains. This research project investigates the behavioral and neuromodulatory effects of high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) during language therapy in PPA participants over time. Anodal HD-tDCS targeting the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) administered in combination with language therapy is expected to be more beneficial when compared to language therapy alone. It will 1) improve language performance or decrease rate of decline, 2) have better-sustained effects at 2 weeks and 2 months post-treatment, and 3) produce generalization to untrained language items and some other cognitive functions. Resting-state fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and volumetric data are also collected to investigate changes in functional brain connectivity associated with HD-tDCS in individuals with PPA. A better understanding of the therapeutic and neuromodulatory mechanisms of HD-tDCS as an adjunct to language therapy in PPA may have a significant impact on the development of effective therapies for PPA and MCI, and may offer insight into ways of impeding neurodegeneration that may improve patients' quality of life, as well as extend their ability to work and manage their affairs.
This study will establish factors fundamental to the improvement in communication and quality of life for people with dementia known as primary progressive aphasia (PPA). PPA is a type of dementia in which language declines but other cognitive skills (including memory) are preserved in the first several years after the onset. This makes those in the initial stages of PPA excellent candidates for treatment and creates a window of time (2-7 years) whereby they can lead independent lives with minimal support. However, currently, no communication therapy is available to people with PPA due to the progressive nature of the disorder and lack of awareness of available options for professionals willing to treat it. Participants with PPA in our study will receive two kinds of therapy for the words they cannot recall spontaneously, and will be trained to maintain them through social interaction. The type of training will be based on the most successful interventions the investigators provided to people with PPA in our previous work. The investigators expect that successful re-learning of forgotten words and practicing them in a group setting will facilitate retention of communication skills leading to greater personal independence and increased/maintained quality of life for people with PPA. Our study represents natural combination of two novel approaches for PPA that ultimately will lead to lower demands on the health care system.
This is a study on Internet-based video-practice speech and language therapy for persons with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), or related conditions.
The study is designed to determine the relationship between structural and functional changes in the brain on imaging and progression of speech and language, neurological and neuropsychological features in patients with neurodegenerative apraxia of speech (AOS).
The study is designed to determine whether there are clinical features that can be used as biomarkers to predict whether underlying Alzheimer's pathology is the cause of a speech and language based dementia. The primary hypothesis is that the proportion of patients who test positive for beta-amyloid deposition will vary across different speech and language based dementias.
The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of AclarusDx™, an investigational blood test detecting gene expression information, and intended to help physicians in making an Alzheimer's Disease diagnosis in patients having memory impairments.
Progressive aphasia is characterized by a steady and progressive loss of language skills in the presence of relatively preserved memory, attention, and thinking. The aim of this study is to slow the progression of language decline in progressive aphasia via language therapy. The first goal of this study is to improve naming abilities of individuals with progressive aphasia. This will be accomplished by carrying out an intensive treatment program for anomia. The second goal is to evaluate whether this intense language treatment re-activates affected areas and/or connections within the language network, using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (to measure neural activity in specific brain regions) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging tractography (to measure the connectivity between specific brain regions). This is the first study on progressive aphasia addressing both treatment and imaging in the same patients.
The purpose of this study is to further define the neurological and linguistic deterioration in primary progressive aphasia.