Abstract
The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) have been consistently associated with semantic processing which, in turn, has a key role in reading aloud single words. This study aimed to investigate (1) the reading abilities in patients with the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), and (2) the relationship between gray matter (GM) volume of the left ATL and word reading performance using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Three groups of participants (svPPA, Alzheimer’s Disease, AD and healthy elderly adults) performed a reading task with exception words, regular words and pseudowords, along with a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan. For exception words, the svPPA group had a lower accuracy and a greater number of regularization errors as compared to the control groups of healthy participants and AD patients. Similarly, for regular words, svPPA patients had a lower accuracy in comparison with AD patients, and a greater number of errors related to complex orthography-to-phonology mappings (OPM) in comparison to both control groups. VBM analyses revealed that GM volume of the left ATL was associated with the number of regularization errors. Also, GM volume of the left lateral ATL was associated with the number of errors with complex OPM during regular word reading. Our results suggest that the left ATL might play a role in the reading of exception words, in accordance with its role in semantic processing. Results further support the involvement of the left lateral ATL in combinatorial processes, including the integration of semantic and phonological information, for both exception and regular words.
Highlights
In the last decade, the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) have been recognized to play a key role in semantic processing (Patterson et al, 2007; Price, 2010; Visser et al, 2010)
The goals of the present article are: (1) to characterize the reading abilities in individuals with semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), known to have reading difficulties related to whole-words, and to compare their performance with two control groups, one of healthy participants and another of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD); and (2) to investigate whether gray matter (GM) volume of the ATLs correlates with the number of regularization errors and errors with complex orthography-to-phonology mappings (OPM), for exception and regular word reading, respectively, using voxel-based morphometry (VBM)
SvPPA patients had a lower accuracy as compared to AD patients only
Summary
The anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) have been recognized to play a key role in semantic processing (Patterson et al, 2007; Price, 2010; Visser et al, 2010). The ventral ATLs, which include portions of the anterior fusiform and inferior temporal gyri, have been linked to processing various types of stimuli such as pictures, environmental sounds, words. The ventral ATLs appear to be involved in the conceptual processing of stimuli, playing a central role in semantic processing (Binney et al, 2010; Collins et al, 2016). The lateral ATLs, corresponding to the anterior middle temporal gyri, have been associated with multimodal semantic processing (Visser et al, 2012). RTMS applied to the lateral ATLs slowed reaction times when participants had to perform an associative-semantic task with pictures (Pobric et al, 2010) or a picture naming task (Pobric et al, 2007). The lateral ATLs may be involved in processing of meaningful concepts, either presented in written or pictorial forms
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