Primary Progressive Aphasia in Bilinguals and Multilinguals

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is the result of neurodegeneration affecting language abilities that continue to decline as the disease progresses. This chapter discusses language decline in bilinguals and multilinguals with PPA in relation to language decline in bilinguals with another degenerative disease (Alzheimer's disease) as well as in relation to sudden-onset aphasia in bilinguals as a result of a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). It provides a detailed explanation of PPA and its three main variants, and discusses different hypotheses of language organization in the bilingual brain, at the neural level. The chapter presents an in-depth discussion about bilinguals with PPA, patterns of language decline, important factors affecting this decline and how all these support or conflict with exisiting models of language organization in the bilingual brain. Studies on bilinguals with PPA can provide valuable information regarding language organization in the bilingual brain.