Main articles: Aphasia and Primary progressive aphasia
| Semantic dementia |
| Classification and external resources |
| MeSH |
D003704 |
Semantic dementia (SD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of semantic memory in both the verbal and non-verbal domains. The most common presenting symptoms are in the verbal domain however (with loss of word meaning) and it is characterized as a primary progressive aphasia.[1][2][3]
SD patients sometimes show symptoms of surface dyslexia, a relatively selective impairment in reading low-frequency words with exceptional or atypical spelling-to-sound correspondences.[4]
SD is one of the three canonical clinical syndromes associated with frontotemporal lobar degeneration. SD is a clinically-defined syndrome, but is associated with predominantly temporal lobe atrophy (left greater than right) and hence is sometimes called temporal variant FTLD (tvFTLD).[5]
It was first described by Arnold Pick in 1904 but in modern times was characterised by Professor Elizabeth Warrington in 1975[6] but was not given the name semantic dementia until 1989.[7] The association with temporal lobe atrophy was made by Professor John Hodges and colleagues in 1992 in a classic description of the clinical and neuropsychological features.[8]
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Contents
- 1 Signs and Symptoms
- 2 Neuropsychology
- 3 Imaging
- 4 Pathology
- 5 Genetics
- 6 Management
- 7 See also
- 8 References
- 9 Further reading
- 10 External links
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Signs and Symptoms
SD patients often present with the complaint of word-finding difficulties. Clinical signs include fluent aphasia, anomia, impaired comprehension of word meaning, and associative visual agnosia (inability to match semantically-related pictures or objects). As the disease progresses, behavioural and personality changes are often seen similar to those seen in frontotemporal dementia although cases have been described of 'pure' semantic dementia with few late behavioural symptoms.
Neuropsychology
Patients perform poorly on tests of semantic knowledge. Published tests include both verbal and non-verbal tasks, e.g., The Warrington Concrete and Abstract Word Synonym Test,[9] and The Pyramids and Palm Trees task (Howard and Patterson, 1992)
Testing will also reveal deficits in picture naming (with semantic errors being made e.g. "dog" for a picture of a hippopotamus) and decreased category fluency.
Imaging
Structural MRI imaging shows a characteristic pattern of atrophy in the temporal lobes (predominantly on the left), with inferior greater than superior involvement and anterior temporal lobe atrophy greater than posterior. This distinguishes it from Alzheimer's disease.[10] Meta-analyses on MRI and FDG-PET studies confirmed these findings by identifying alterations in the inferior temporal poles and amygdalae as the hotspots of disease - brain regions that have been discussed in the context of conceptual knowledge, semantic information processing, and social cognition.[11] Based on these imaging methods, semantic dementia can be regionally dissociated from the other subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, frontotemporal dementia and progressive nonfluent aphasia.
Pathology
The majority of patients with SD will have ubiquitin-positive, TDP-43 positive, tau-negative inclusions, although other pathologies have been described more infrequently, namely tau-positive Pick's disease and Alzheimer's pathology.[12]
Genetics
Of all the FTLD syndromes SD is least likely to run in families and is usually sporadic.[13]
Management
There is currently no known curative treatment for this condition. Supportive care is essential in what is a greatly debilitating problem.
See also
- Frontotemporal lobar degeneration
- Frontotemporal dementia
- Pick's disease
- Alzheimer's disease
- Semantic memory
References
- ^ Gorno-Tempini ML, Hillis AE, Weintraub S, et al. (March 2011). "Classification of primary progressive aphasia and its variants". Neurology 76 (11): 1006–14. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31821103e6. PMC 3059138. PMID 21325651. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3059138/.
- ^ Bonner MF, Ash S, Grossman M (November 2010). "The new classification of primary progressive aphasia into semantic, logopenic, or nonfluent/agrammatic variants". Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 10 (6): 484–90. doi:10.1007/s11910-010-0140-4. PMC 2963791. PMID 20809401. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2963791/.
- ^ Harciarek M, Kertesz A (September 2011). "Primary progressive aphasias and their contribution to the contemporary knowledge about the brain-language relationship". Neuropsychol Rev 21 (3): 271–87. doi:10.1007/s11065-011-9175-9. PMC 3158975. PMID 21809067. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3158975/.
- ^ Wilson, Stephen. "The neural basis of surface dyslexia in semantic dementia". Oxford Journals. http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/132/1/71.abstract. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
- ^ Weder ND, Aziz R, Wilkins K, Tampi RR (2007). "Frontotemporal dementias: a review". Ann Gen Psychiatry 6: 15. doi:10.1186/1744-859X-6-15. PMC 1906781. PMID 17565679. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1906781/.
- ^ Warrington EK (Nov 1975). "The selective impairment of semantic memory". Q J Exp Psychol 27 (4): 635–57. doi:10.1080/14640747508400525. PMID 1197619.
- ^ Snowden JS, Goulding PJ, Neary D (1989). "Semantic dementia: a form of circumscribed cerebral atrophy". Behav Neurol 2: 167–82.
- ^ Hodges JR, Patterson K, Oxbury S, Funnell E (Dec 1992). "Semantic dementia. Progressive fluent aphasia with temporal lobe atrophy". Brain 115 ((Pt 6)): 1783–806. doi:10.1093/brain/115.6.1783. PMID 1486461. http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=1486461.
- ^ Warrington EK, McKenna P, Orpwood L (Apr 1998). "Single word comprehension: a concrete and abstract word synonym test". Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 8 (2): 143–54. doi:10.1080/713755564. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713755564~db=all~order=page.
- ^ Chan D, Fox NC, Scahill RI, et al. (Apr 2001). "Patterns of temporal lobe atrophy in semantic dementia and Alzheimer's disease". Ann Neurol. 49 (4): 433–42. doi:10.1002/ana.92. PMID 11310620.
- ^ Schroeter ML, Raczka KK, Neumann J, von Cramon DY (2007). "Towards a nosology for frontotemporal lobar degenerations – A meta-analysis involving 267 subjects.". NeuroImage 36 (3): 497–510. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.024. PMID 17478101.
- ^ Davies RR, Hodges JR, Kril JJ, Patterson K, Halliday GM, Xuereb JH (Sep 2005). "The pathological basis of semantic dementia". Brain 128 (Pt 9): 1984–95. doi:10.1093/brain/awh582. PMID 16000337.
- ^ Goldman JS, Farmer JM, Wood EM, et al. (Dec 2005). "Comparison of family histories in FTLD subtypes and related tauopathies". Neurology 65 (11): 1817–9. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000187068.92184.63. PMID 16344531.
Further reading
- Gliebus G (March 2010). "Primary progressive aphasia: clinical, imaging, and neuropathological findings". Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen 25 (2): 125–7. doi:10.1177/1533317509356691. PMID 20124255.
- Henry ML, Beeson PM, Rapcsak SZ (February 2008). "Treatment for anomia in semantic dementia". Semin Speech Lang 29 (1): 60–70. doi:10.1055/s-2008-1061625. PMC 2699352. PMID 18348092. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699352/.
- Henry ML, Gorno-Tempini ML (December 2010). "The logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia". Curr. Opin. Neurol. 23 (6): 633–7. doi:10.1097/WCO.0b013e32833fb93e. PMC 3201824. PMID 20852419. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3201824/.
- Reilly J, Rodriguez AD, Lamy M, Neils-Strunjas J (2010). "Cognition, language, and clinical pathological features of non-Alzheimer's dementias: an overview". J Commun Disord 43 (5): 438–52. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.04.011. PMC 2922444. PMID 20493496. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2922444/.
- Rohrer JD, Knight WD, Warren JE, Fox NC, Rossor MN, Warren JD (January 2008). "Word-finding difficulty: a clinical analysis of the progressive aphasias". Brain 131 (Pt 1): 8–38. doi:10.1093/brain/awm251. PMC 2373641. PMID 17947337. //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2373641/.
External links
- The Association for Frontotemporal Dementias
- UCSF Memory and Aging Center and FTD videos
- Mayo Clinic - FTD Info
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Symptoms and signs: Speech and voice / Symptoms involving head and neck (R47–R49, 784)
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| Acute Aphasias |
Expressive aphasia · Receptive aphasia · Conduction aphasia · Anomic aphasia · Global aphasia ·
Transcortical sensory aphasia · Transcortical motor aphasia · Mixed transcortical aphasia
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| Progressive Aphasias |
Progressive nonfluent aphasia · Semantic dementia · Logopenic progressive aphasia
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| Other speech disturbances |
Speech disorder · Apraxia of speech · Auditory verbal agnosia · Dysarthria · Schizophasia · Aprosodia/Dysprosody
Specific language impairment · Thought disorder · Pressure of speech · Derailment · Clanging · Circumstantiality
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| Symbolic dysfunctions |
Developmental dyslexia/Alexia · Agnosia (Astereognosis, Prosopagnosia, Visual agnosia) · Gerstmann syndrome ·
Developmental dyspraxia/Apraxia (Ideomotor apraxia) · Dyscalculia/Acalculia · Agraphia
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| Voice disturbances |
Dysphonia/Aphonia
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| Other |
Auditory processing disorder · Epistaxis · Headache · Post-nasal drip · Neck mass
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dsrd (o, p, m, p, a, d, s), sysi/epon, spvo
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proc (eval/thrp), drug (N5A/5B/5C/6A/6B/6D)
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noco/cofa (c)/cogi/tumr, sysi
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