Smartphone use as an efficient tool to improve anomia in primary progressive aphasia

Abstract

Cognitive interventions are helpful in the non-pharmacologicalmanagement of Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and otherneurodegenerative disorders of cognition, by helpingpatients to compensate for their cognitive deficits andimprove their functional independence. In this study, weexamined the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation basedon the use of mobile device technology in PPA. The aim ofthis research study was to determine if BL, a patient withsemantic variant PPA (svPPA) and severe anomia, was able tolearn using specific smartphone functions and an applicationto reduce her wordfinding difficulties. She was trainedduring the intervention sessions on a list of target pictures tomeasure changes in picture naming performance. Errorlesslearning was applied during learning. BL quickly learned touse smartphone functions and the application over thecourse of the intervention. She significantly improved heranomia for trained pictures, and to a lesser extent foruntrained semantically related pictures. Picture namingperformance was maintained six months after theintervention, and she continued to use her smartphoneregularly to communicate with family members and friends.This study confirms that smartphone use can be learned inPPA, which can help reduce the symptoms of anomia andimprove communication skills.