Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology
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J Clin Exp Neuropsychol · May 2004
Comparative StudyPreservation of reasoning in primary progressive aphasia: further differentiation from Alzheimer's disease and the behavioral presentation of frontotemporal dementia.
Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome characterized by the gradual dissolution of language without impairment of other cognitive domains for at least the first 2 years of illness (M.-M. Mesulam, 1982, 2001). It is difficult to demonstrate the integrity of nonlanguage domains in PPA because most neuropsychological tests of memory, reasoning, and attention require language competence for their performance. ⋯ Patients with PPA and controls performed similarly, detecting commonalities among objects and shifting from one sorting principle to another. In contrast, both AD and FTD subjects were significantly impaired on both measures. These results provide evidence of preserved reasoning in PPA, further differentiating this syndrome from other behaviorally focal dementia syndromes.