Relearning and Retaining Personally-Relevant Words using Computer-Based Flashcard Software in Primary Progressive Aphasia

William S. Evans, Megan Quimby, Michael Walsh Dickey, Bradford C. Dickerson

Although anomia treatments have often focused on training small sets of words in the hopes of promoting generalization to untrained items, an alternative is to directly train a larger set of words more efficiently. The current case study reports on a novel treatment for a patient with semantic variant Primary Progressive Aphasia (svPPA), in which the patient was taught to make and practice flashcards for personally-relevant words using an open-source computer program (Anki). Results show that the patient was able to relearn and retain a large subset of her studied words for up to 20 months, the full duration of the study period. At the end of treatment, she showed good retention for 139 words. While only a subset of the 591 studied overall, this is still far more words than is typically targeted in svPPA interventions. Furthermore, she showed evidence of generalization to perceptually distinct stimuli during confrontation naming and temporary gains in semantic fluency, suggesting limited gains in semantic knowledge as a result of training. This case represents a successful example of patient-centered treatment, where the patient used a computer-based intervention independently at home. It also illustrates how data captured from computer-based treatments during routine clinical care can provide valuable "practice-based evidence" for motivating further treatment research.