Improvement in Cognitive Performance in a Retired Professional Football Player Male with Logopenic Progressive Aphasia

Background: A 42 year old, male, retired professional football player, with a history of “getting his bell rung many times, and thinking nothing of it”, presented with difficulty of speech, impaired short and long term memory, concentration, and a diagnosis of Logopenic Progressive Aphasia (LPA). Standard Assessment of Cognition (SAC) was scored at 16/30. Trails A (TA) and Trails B (TB) had scores of 70.7 sec and 174.8 seconds respectively; Trails B-A Difference (TB-A) was 104.1 sec. Processing Speed (PS) score was a 22/80. Simple Reaction Time (sRT) and Choice Reaction Time (cRT) latencies were 393 and 669 milliseconds respectively.

Methods: A five-day, multi-modal program of neurological rehabilitation was administered three times per day, for one-hour sessions. Each session consisted of electrical somatosensory stimulation, neuromuscular reeducation exercises, vestibular rehabilitation exercises, off-vertical axis rotation, and eye exercises.

Results: At the end of five days of treatment the patient had an increased SAC score (+25.0%), decreased TA time (-36.1%), insignificant change in TB time (- 0.4%), TB-A decreased (-23.8%), mild increase in PS score (+4.5%), decreased sRT latency (-12.7%), and decreased cRT latency (-19.6%). Both the clinician, the patient, and the spouse noticed a subjective, yet substantial increase in verbal communication.

Conclusion: Short duration, multi-modal, intensive programs of neurological rehabilitation may be a viable method to improve neurological integrity and speech in individuals with Logopenic Progressive Aphasia. The author suggests further investigation into short duration, multi-modal, intensive approaches to restoring neurological function in individuals suffering from progressive aphasia and other frontotemporal lobar degeneration.