Errorless Learning Therapy in Semantic Variant of Primary Progressive Aphasia

Abstract

Background: The semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) is characterized by a progressive loss of semantic knowledge impairing the ability to name and to recognize the meaning of words. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the immediate and short-term effect of errorless learning speech therapy on the naming and recognition of commonly used words in patients with svPPA. Methods: Eight participants diagnosed with svPPA received 16 sessions of intensive errorless learning speech therapy. Naming and word comprehension tasks were evaluated at baseline, immediately postintervention, and at follow-up after 1, 3, and 6 months. These evaluations were performed using two item sets (a trained list and an untrained list). Results: In the naming tasks, patients showed a significant improvement in trained items immediately after the intervention, but that improvement decayed progressively when therapy ended. No improvements were found either in trained comprehension or in untrained tasks. Conclusion: Errorless learning therapy could improve naming ability in patients with svPPA. This effect may be due to the relative preservation of episodic memory, but the benefit is not maintained over time, presumably because there is no consolidation.

Language training for oral and written naming impairment in primary progressive aphasia: a review

“…In contrast, regarding generalization to other tasks, all studies that examined this effect have reported a benefit following semantic treatment to other language measures [56,61,67,68,73,74,89,91,93,95,98,[100][101][102][103]. Likewise, all studies that investigated the long-term effect of the treatment have shown maintenance of the gains over time [61,74,89,90,92,93,95,97,98,101,[103][104][105].…”

“…svPPA Some studies have investigated the application of semantic treatments in patients with svPPA and reported different results regarding the benefits on naming abilities of trained items, generalization to untrained items and/ or other language tasks, and long-term maintenance of effects [56,67,68,73,74,[89][90][91][92][93][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105]. Regarding the studies that used traditional semantic treatments to verify the improvement of oral naming abilities on trained and untrained items, Snowden and Neary [89] applied semantic treatment based on a repeated exposure paradigm combined with home training in two patients with svPPA and reported improvement in relearning trained items.…”

“…Recently, the effectiveness of language training by errorless learning has been evaluated by Montagut et al [105] in 8 patients with svPPA. This study showed an improvement in oral naming of trained items, and this gain was maintained at 12 weeks after intervention without any generalization result.…”

Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia: Practical Recommendations for Treatment from 20 Years of Behavioural Research

“…The suitability of a semantic approach to treating these items (e.g., working on characteristics of an object’s usage and location and linking it with other related memories) is supported by two types of studies. The first consists of studies looking at the direct restoration of semantic knowledge [ 66 , 67 , 70 ] and the second capitalising on residual semantic information to boost word retrieval [ 18 , 40 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 58 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 ]. Both contribute to understanding the importance of the semantic system in the rehabilitation of svPPA.…”

Feasibility study of Internet video-based speech-language activity for outpatients with primary progressive aphasia

“…Speech-language therapy for naming deficit includes lexical retrieval treatment, phonological and/or orthographic treatment, semantic treatment, and a multimodality treatment approach [ 9 ], and script training has been reported for agrammatic PPA [ 8 ]. Intervention methods may be verbal or written; pictorial stimulation is common, and errorless methods are also employed [ 10 , 11 ].While many studies have shown statistically significant improvements, maintenance effects vary, and there are many reports of effects declining with treatment discontinuation. Recent reports describe increased efficacy with the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) [ 12 , 13 ], and significant changes in functional connectivity with tDCS and speech-language therapy have been observed by fMRI [ 14 ], raising hopes of continued therapeutic efficacy.…”