Longitudinal cerebral diffusion changes reflect progressive decline of language and cognition

Language deficits are regularly found in cortical neurodegenerative diseases. The progression of language deficits shows a considerable inter-individual variability even within one diagnostic group. We aimed at detecting patterns of altered diffusion as well as atrophy of cerebral gray and white matter which underlie ongoing language-related deterioration in patients with cortical neurodegenerative diseases. Diffusion tensor imaging and T1-weighted MRI data of 26 patients with clinically diagnosed neurodegenerative disorders were acquired at baseline and 14 months later in this prospective study. Language functions were assessed with a confrontation naming test and the Token Test. Diffusion and voxel-based morphometric measures were calculated and correlates of language performance were evaluated. Across all patients, the naming impairment was related to diffusion (false discovery rate-corrected P