Grammatical Ability Predicts Relative Action Naming Impairment in Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Background: Findings from several studies have indicated that participants with nfvPPA and participants with svPPA exhibit different patterns on action and object naming tasks, while other recent studies have found that neither participants with nfvPPA nor participants with svPPA show a significant difference in accuracy between object naming and action naming.

Aims: The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that relative action naming impairment is associated with grammatical ability in PPA, rather than a specific subtype of PPA.

Methods & Procedures: Thirty-four participants with PPA completed the Boston Naming Test, the Action Naming subtest of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, and the Northwestern Anagram Test, which was used to measure grammatical ability.