Prophylaxis of Anomia in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Lexical and Semantic Treatments

EasyChair Preprint 6426

Abstract

Introduction

In a recent group study, phonological and orthographic treatments were both effective in the prophylaxis of anomia in PPA (Meyer et al., 2019). In the current study, phonological and orthographic treatments were combined into a lexical treatment, which was compared with error-reduced semantic feature analysis (Reilly, 2016).

Methods

At baseline, participants named two sets of pictures, which represented the same items: Exemplar 1 (used during treatment); and Exemplar 2 (never trained). Items consistently named correctly at baseline were selected for prophylaxis. In the lexical treatment condition (LTC), participants viewed a pictured noun or verb, followed by the word’s orthographic and phonological features, and each participant was instructed to write the word. The word was then presented, and the participant was asked to read/repeat the word. In the semantic treatment condition (STC), participants viewed a pictured noun or verb, and the word’s semantic features were presented. The word was then presented, and the participant was asked to read/repeat the word. The untrained condition included items that were matched with LTC or STC. Data analysis focused on naming accuracy for Exemplar 2.

Results

All 20 participants had prophylaxis items for nouns, while 17 participants had prophylaxis items for verbs. At 1 month post-treatment, there were no significant differences between the treatment effects for LTC and STC within any subtype. At the group level, compared to untrained items, naming accuracy was significantly higher in LTC for nouns, and it was significantly higher in both LTC and STC for verbs.

Conclusions

The findings of this study suggest that lexical and semantic treatments have similar levels of efficacy within each subtype of PPA. However, semantic treatment may be less effective for noun prophylaxis items.

Keyphrases: Anomia, primary progressive aphasia, treatment

@booklet{EasyChair:6426,
  author    = {Aaron Meyer and Sarah Snider and Donna Tippett and Ryan Saloma and Rhonda Friedman},
  title     = {Prophylaxis of Anomia in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Lexical and Semantic Treatments},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 6426},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2021}}