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

ABSTRACT

Cognitive interventions are helpful in the non-pharmacological management of Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and other neurodegenerative disorders of cognition, by helping patients to compensate for their cognitive deficits and improve their functional independence. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation based on the use of mobile device technology in PPA. The aim of this research study was to determine if BL, a patient with semantic variant PPA (svPPA) and severe anomia, was able to learn using specific smartphone functions and an application to reduce her word finding difficulties. She was trained during the intervention sessions on a list of target pictures to measure changes in picture naming performance. Errorless learning was applied during learning. BL quickly learned to use smartphone functions and the application over the course of the intervention. She significantly improved her anomia for trained pictures, and to a lesser extent for untrained semantically related pictures. Picture naming performance was maintained six months after the intervention, and she continued to use her smartphone regularly to communicate with family members and friends. This study confirms that smartphone use can be learned in PPA, which can help reduce the symptoms of anomia and improve communication skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Primary progressive aphasia
• Smartphone use
• Mobile technology
• Errorless learning
• Cognitive intervention

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank B.L. and her husband for their participation in this research study. We would also like to thank Taptapsee ™ and CloudSight ™.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a CAREC grant to S.J. N.B. is supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Santé (FRQ-S).