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49/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 49 out of 100. Digital health tools

Topic: Brain proteins, microglia and lab models

We investigated the cognitive and neural bases of impaired speech fluency, a central feature of primary progressive aphasia. Speech fluency was assessed in 35 patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) who presented with progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA, n=11), semantic dementia (SemD, n=12), or a social and executive disorder without aphasia (SOC/EXEC, n=12). Fluency was quantified as the number of words per minute in an extended, semi-structured speech sample. This was related to language characteristics of the speech sample and to neuropsychological measures. PNFA patients were significantly less fluent than controls and other FTLD patients. Fluency correlated with grammatical expression but not with speech errors or executive difficulty. SemD and SOC/EXEC patients were also less fluent than controls. In SemD, fluency was associated with semantically limited content. In SOC/EXEC, fluency was associated with executive limitations. Voxel-based morphometry analyses of high-resolution MRI related fluency to gray matter volume in left inferior frontal, insula, and superior temporal regions for the entire cohort of FTLD patients. This region overlapped partially distinct atrophic areas in each FTLD subgroup. It thus appears to play a crucial role in speech fluency, which can be interrupted in different ways in different FTLD subgroups.

Key findings

PNFA patients were significantly less fluent than controls and other FTLD patients.
In SemD, fluency was associated with semantically limited content.
In SOC/EXEC, fluency was associated with executive limitations.

Why it matters

This study found that speech fluency was reduced in different ways across subgroups of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, linked to grammar, semantic content or executive problems. It describes speech symptoms and their brain regions and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention.

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Study details

Participants35
Evidence strengthModerate

How this study scored 49/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Journal of neurolinguistics)
Journal's citation record	1 / 4	Journal of Neurolinguistics: journal h-index 88 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	3 / 5	Rated “moderate” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2009 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	1 / 4	35 participants
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomised / blinded	0 / 2	No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	5 / 7	Cited 140 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	2 / 5	7.4 citations a year over 19 year(s) since 2009
Impact for its field and year	3 / 6	Cited 5.2× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	3 / 6	Cited by 15 other studies in this library
Still being cited	2 / 4	Cited 18 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	4 / 4	Last-listed author Murray Grossman: h-index 119 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	2 / 3	University of Pennsylvania: institution h-index 1,859 (OpenAlex)
Multi-centre collaboration	0 / 3	OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete)
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 22180700)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Total	49 / 100	—

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Read the original

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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record names 8 authors; APA and Vancouver show the first six, BibTeX and the downloads carry all of them. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

APA 7th

Ash, S., Moore, P., Vesely, L., Gunawardena, D., McMillan, C., Anderson, C., et al. (2009). Non-Fluent Speech in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration. Journal of neurolinguistics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2008.12.001

Vancouver

Ash S, Moore P, Vesely L, Gunawardena D, McMillan C, Anderson C, et al. Non-Fluent Speech in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration. Journal of neurolinguistics. 2009. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2008.12.001. PMID: 22180700.

BibTeX

@article{ash2009-22180700,
  author  = {Ash, S. and Moore, P. and Vesely, L. and Gunawardena, D. and McMillan, C. and Anderson, C. and Avants, B. and Grossman, M.},
  title   = {{Non-Fluent Speech in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration}},
  journal = {Journal of neurolinguistics},
  year    = {2009},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.jneuroling.2008.12.001},
  pmid    = {22180700},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2008.12.001}
}

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