Primary Progressive Aphasia

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurological disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak and communicate. Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to key parts of your brain that are responsible for understanding or producing speech and/or writing.

When the aphasia is from a brain disease that gets worse over time (progressive neurodegenerative disease), healthcare providers call it “primary progressive aphasia.” Initially, people may have trouble finding the right words to express themselves. The condition worsens over time, as people lose their ability to write, speak or understand language.

Most commonly, the underlying cause of PPA is a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia. In these conditions, the areas of your brain related to control of speech or understanding of words and their meaning break down.

What are the types of primary progressive aphasia?

Experts divide PPA into three sub-types:

• Lopogenic progressive aphasia may cause difficulty finding the right words or understanding others.
• Progressive non-fluent aphasia may cause poor grammar or difficulty talking fluently.
• Semantic dementia may cause difficulty naming objects or understanding the meaning of stand-alone words.

Who does primary progressive aphasia affect?

Primary progressive aphasia may affect anyone, but it’s more common in people with:

• Family history of PPA.
• Gene changes (mutations) in the GRN gene, which occur before birth.
• Learning disabilities.