Abstract(s) :

(Anglais) Quantitative and qualitative verbal fluency assessment in primary progressive aphasia Sandrine Basaglia-Pappas1,2, Audeline Crausaz3, Anne Boulangé1, Bernard Laurent1, Céline Borg1, Isabelle Simoes Loureiro2, Laurent Lefebvre2 1CHU Nord, CMRR, Neuropsychology department, Saint-Etienne, France 2University of Mons, Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology department, Belgium 3University Claude Bernard Lyon1, Lyon, France Overview and aim. Verbal fluency is decreased in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), due to specific language deficits but also to executive functions impairment. In this study, we aimed to investigate quantitative (number of words) and qualitative (clustering, switching, word-frequency and repetition errors) differences in verbal fluency for the three variants of PPA (non-fluent/agrammatic (nfvPPA), semantic (svPPA), and logopenic (lvPPA)). Methods. We recruited 30 participants who met the criteria for PPA (8 nfvPPA, 8 svPPA, 14 lvPPA) and 30 healthy controls, matched for age, gender and education. Participants underwent a semantic, phonemic and grammatical fluency assessment. Results. Patients with PPA generated significantly fewer words on verbal fluency tasks (semantic, phonemic and grammatical) than controls. svPPA produced more words in phonemic fluency. lvPPA patients performed better than both nfvPPA and svPPA on semantic and grammatical fluency. svPPA produced significantly smaller clusters and switched more frequently than nfvPPA and lvPPA. The mean word-frequency was higher in svPPA than in nfvPPA and lvPPA. nfvPPA produced significantly more repetition errors. Discussion and conclusions. These findings fit well with the theoretical model of verbal fluency proposed by Troyer et al. (1997), in which clustering is associated with the semantic system and supported by temporal lobe, whereas switching is associated with executive functioning and related to frontal lobe, which is relatively spared in svPPA but impaired in nfvPPA. Qualitative analysis of verbal fluency provides additional information and should contribute to classification of PPAs. Better characterization of language deficit in PPAs would help to a better care. 249 words Key words: Primary progressive aphasia – executive functions – verbal fluency task