PROGRESSIVE LANGUAGE DYSFUNCTION AND LOBAR ATROPHY

The patterns of language disorder associated with 'progressive aphasia ' due to lobar atrophy were compared with the language dysfunction of patients with dementia of frontal lobe type (DFT). The progressive aph asias were characterised primarily by impairment at the structural lev els of language: phonology, grammar and semantics, whereas DFT was ass ociated primarily with aspontaneity and loss of generative capability. However, there was overlap in language symptomatology, particularly w ith progression of disease. The findings lend support to the argument that progressive aphasia and DFT represent different clinical manifest ations of a common pathology, and form part of the spectrum of lobar a trophies.