Pragmatics in frontal lobe dementia and primary progressive aphasia

The purpose of this study was to document the pragmatic performance of subjects with frontal lobe dementia (FLD), non-fluent primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and fluent PPA using topic-directed conversation-based interviews. Unique profiles of pragmatic performance emerged for the three subject groups using objective measures of discourse, pragmatics, and scores from the Profile of Communicative Appropriateness (PCA) (Penn, 1985). The differences in performance provide a clearer understanding of the selective influences of frontal and frontotemporal pathology on the pragmatics of patients with FLD and PPA.