Logopenic Variant PPA (lvPPA) is one type of Primary Progressive Aphasia. lvPPA causes the brain to slowly lose the ability to work with the sounds of language. This happens because of changes in something called phonological working memory.
Phonological working memory is like a small “holding space” in your brain. It helps you hold on to sounds and words just long enough to use them.
You need this holding space to:
Saying the sounds of words the right way
You might mix up sounds when trying to say a word.
Example: If you want to say “helicopter,” you might say:
At first, these problems may only show up with long words, long sentences, or multi-step directions.
Later, even short words and sentences can become hard to understand, say, or repeat.
lvPPA is caused by changes in the brain over time. The biggest change happens in the area where the two brain parts meet:
This area is called the temporal-parietal junction. It is important for holding sounds in your head and putting them together to make words and sentences.
In lvPPA, this part of your brain starts to shrink. This is called atrophy (say: AT-ruh-fee), which means your brain cells are slowly getting damaged or dying.
The shrinking happens because of abnormal proteins in your brain. In lvPPA, the two main proteins are called:
These proteins are not supposed to build up in your brain. But in lvPPA, they do.
Amyloid plaques (say: AM-uh-loyd plaks) are clumps of sticky protein that build up between your brain cells. They block messages from getting through. This makes it harder for your brain cells to talk to each other.
Tau tangles (say: TOW tang-gulls) are twisted threads of protein inside your brain cells. They mess up the inside of the cells, so they can’t stay healthy or move things around.
Over time, the build-up of amyloid plaques and tau tangles causes your brain cells to die. As more brain cells are lost, your brain shrinks in that area.
That’s why it becomes harder to find words, repeat sentences, or understand long sentences, because the part of your brain that helps with these skills is damaged.
People use different terms and short forms (also called acronyms) to talk about logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia. Here are the most common ones:
