BACKGROUND: Primary progressive aphasia(PPA) is a degenerative disease of nervous system, which is very rare in clinics. Only 3 cases have been reported in our country. There is very little clinical information regarding the characteristics of PPA in linguistics and imageology.OBJECTIVE: To report the language disorder and the characteristics of imageology of one PPA patient for the clarification of the clinical features of PPA.DESIGN: A case analysis.SETTING: Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital; Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University.PATICIPANT: Male, 56 years old, senior high school graduate, businessman before the onset of the disease. The case visited the department of Neurology,Tiantan Hospital, Beijing due to the complaint of three years of progressive decreasing in language skills, which was then diagnosed with PPA.METH ODS: Spoken language fluency evaluation in Chinese Aphasia Examination Set of the First Affiliated Hospital of Beijing Medical University was used to evaluate this patient, the type of Aphasia was judged by Western Aphasia Examination Set, and the severity gradation was classified by the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination(BDAE) . Memory, intelligence screening and imageology examination were performed as well.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The fluency of spoken language, the type of aphasia, and the severity of aphasia of the patient were judged, and whether the patient suffered from memory and intelligence disorder were observed as well as the features of imageology.RESULTS: The patient had fluent spoken language, which was evaluated as sensory aphasia(SA) with the aphasia severity of level 4, and had no memory or intelligence disorder. MRI showed atrophy in left frontal lobe and temporal lobe, which was more significant in left side. MRI also showed that left temporal and frontal lobes had low metabolism and low perfusion.CONCLUSION: PPA is a disease with language disorder as its dominant clinical manifestation, which no other cognitive disorder at its initial stage,and with its main pathological changes in left temporal and frontal lobes.

0.05), while there was significant difference between verb and noun correct rate in VPN (P

Post-stroke aphasia refers to acquired language disorder caused by cerebrovascular disease.As part of cognitive function,language is closely related with other non-linguistic cognitive function.In recent years,many scholars have begun to pay attention to the relationship between language disorder and non-verbal cognitive function in patients with post-stroke aphasia.This paper describes the epidemiology of cognitive impairment in patients with post-stroke aphasia,and summarizes the relationship between language obstruction and the non-language-based cognitive function in patients with aphasia after stroke (such as working memory,attention,execution,etc.) to provide a direction for further research.

Objective To establish the Cookie Theft Test for Chinese norms. Methods 29 normal participants and 17 patients with stroke finished the Cookie Theft Test. The language samples were analyzed in 7 different indexes which are incorrect statement (IS), dysfluencies (DF), providing structure support (PS), repetitions (RP), content units (CU), elaborations of content units (EC) and irrelevancies (IR). Besides, the total words of language samples were counted. The scores of normal participants in 8 indexes were regarded as norms. And the scores of patients in 8 indexes were used to test the validity of the norms. Results The test-retest reliability was r(IS)=0.92, r(DF)=0.89, r(PS)= 0.98, r(RP)=0.84, r(CU)=0.96, r(EC)=0.88 and r(IR)=0.99, respectively. 12 out of 17 patients were distinguished by the norms. Conclusion The norms of Cookie Theft have acceptable reliability and validity and can be applied to clinical diagnoses and scientific researches

Objective To find biological markers to predict the mathematical cognitive ability in order to set patients free from the pain and time-consuming behavioral tests. Methods 86 patients with stroke or brain traumatic injuries were recruited and acquired T1 and rest-ing-state functional MRI imaging data. And a mathematical task (7 calculation items, 2 counting items) and a word-reading task (140 items) was also finished. The partial correlative analysis was made between the score of mathematical task and the amplitude of low frequency fluc-tuation of each voxel of the whole brain with the word-reading performance as controlling task, and AlphaSim correction method was used with corrected P<0.05 (single voxel level:P<0.05;cluster size:>110 voxels). Results There were 5 cerebral regions whose amplitude of low frequency fluctuation significantly correlated with mathematical performance:left inferior parietal lobule (161 voxels, rpeak=0.34), left precu-neus/superior parietal lobule (141 voxels, rpeak=0.31), left middle temporal gyrus (359 voxels, rpeak=0.34), left middle frontal gyrus (491 vox-els, rpeak=0.36), and right middle frontal gyrus (156 voxels, rpeak=0.32). Conclusion The amplitude of low frequency fluctuation of left inferior parietal lobule, precuneus/superior parietal lobule, middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and right middle frontal gyrus could be used as predictors of mathematical cognitive ability for brain-damaged patients.

Objective To investigate the cognitive-communication ability of people aged 20-30 years in China. Methods 139 normal participants took part in the Cookie Theft test. 8 different indexes were used to analyze the language samples. These indexes were total words number, the percentage of incorrect statement, dysfluencies, providing structure support, repetition, content units, elaborations of content units and irrelevancies. Results The rater consistence reliability was 1, 0.89, 0.85, 0.93, 0.92, 0.98, 0.98, 0.62, respectively. Conclusion The norms have acceptable reliability.

ObjectiveTo investigate the pathologic mechanism of motor aphasia.Methods25 patients with cerebral infarction and motor aphasia were examined by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) at Broca's areas, the results were compared with that of the mirror side.ResultsMRS showed that the N-acetyl aspartate, choline in Broca's areas reduced than that of the mirror side ( P<0.05); while PWI showed that the regional cerebral blood volume and regional cerebral blood flow of damaged Broca's areas decreased significantly than that of the right hemisphere ( P<0.01). Mean transit time and time to peak of damaged Broca's areas prolonged than that of mirror side ( P<0.05).ConclusionHypoperfusion and hypometabolism revealed in Broca's areas of patients with motor aphasia may be one of the mechanisms of motor aphasia.

ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship between the presentation of color knowledge and the motion knowledge. Methods39 patients with brain injury and 39 healthy volunteers were recruited in this study. They were tested with the color attribute judgment task and the motion attribute judgment task. Group analysis and case analysis were taken to investigate the correlation and dissociation between these two tasks. ResultsGroup analysis revealed a positive correlation between the color attribute judgment and the motion attribute judgment task. As for case analysis, 5 patients showed significantly better performance on color attribution judgment than motion attribution judgment. In contrast, another 5 patients showed significantly better performance on motion attribute judgment than color attribute judgment. ConclusionColor knowledge and motion knowledge are represented independently in the brain, which is consistent with the distributed semantic memory theory.

ObjectiveTo study the relationship between representations of verbal sound and non-verbal sound in the brain. Methods39 patients with brain injury and 39 healthy volunteers were recruited in this study. They were tested with the sound-verification task (a non-verbal sound test) and the sound attribute judgment task (a verbal sound test). The software developed by Crawford and Garthwaite was used for data analysis. ResultsGroup analysis revealed a positive correlation between the verbal sound test and non-verbal sound test. As for case analysis, some patients were impaired in the comprehension of verbal sound test, but normal in the comprehension of non-verbal sound test. In contrast, some patients were impaired in the comprehension of non-verbal sound test, but normal in the comprehension of verbal sound test. ConclusionVerbal sound and non-verbal sound are represented independently in the brain. In the process of language rehabilitation of aphasia, attention should not only be paid to verbal sound training, but also to non-verbal sound training.

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) can be applied to study the resting-state network, and it is easier than task-related fMRI. Imaging principle, research methods of rs-fMRI, as well as its application in cognitive impairment were reviewed in this article.