What is Primary Progressive Aphasia?

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a clinical dementia syndrome that is caused by neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease or a form of Frontemporal Lobar Degeneration. Below, we break down the PPA term to uncover how each word contributes to the definition of the syndrome.

Primary

Impairment is prominent in a single domain (language) with relative sparing of other domains early on (e.g., memory, personality and perception)

Progressive

The impairment will get worse over time, since it is caused by neurodegenerative disease

Aphasia

Refers to the language impairment that individuals experience