Action and Object Naming in Frontotemporal Dementia, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and Corticobasal Degeneration

• Published in: Neuropsychology Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 558 - 565
• Main Authors: Cotelli, M, Borroni, B, Manenti, R, Alberici, A, Calabria, M, Agosti, C, Arévalo, A, Ginex, V, Ortelli, P, Binetti, G, Zanetti, O, Padovani, A, Cappa, S. F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-09-2006
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aphasia; Aphasia - psychology; Basal Ganglia - pathology; Biological and medical sciences; Cerebral Cortex - pathology; Corticobasal Degeneration; Dementia; Dementia - psychology; Education; Female; Forensic psychiatry; Human; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Naming; Neurodegenerative Diseases - pathology; Neurodegenerative Diseases - psychology; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Progressive Supranuclear Palsy; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive - psychology; Visual Perception - physiology; frontotemporal dementia; language impairment; naming; Human; Communication disorder; Nervous system diseases; Language; Cognition; Degeneration; Neurological disorder; Frontotemporal dementia; Naming; Language disorder
• ISSN: 0894-4105; 1931-1559
• DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.20.5.558

Action naming has been reported to be disproportionately impaired in comparison to object naming in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). This finding has been attributed to the crucial role of frontal cortex in action naming. The investigation of object and action naming in the different subtypes of FTD, as well as in the related conditions of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD), may thus contribute to the elucidation of the cerebral correlates of the action-object discrepancy as well as provide clues to the underlying cognitive mechanisms. The results indicated that, with the exception of semantic dementia, action naming was more impaired than object naming in all patient groups. The discrepancy was similar in frontal variant of FTD and Alzheimer's disease patients, whereas patients with nonfluent primary progressive aphasia, PSP, and CBD were significantly more impaired in the oral production of actions than of objects. These findings indicate that action naming impairment is not a general feature of FTD, but rather is associated with conditions that affect the frontoparietal-subcortical circuits involved in action knowledge and action representation.