Background and Objectives: Difficulties in language production and comprehension constitute clinical symptoms characterizing patients diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). Thorough assessment of language domains can detect specific deficits commonly observed in different PPA variants, but brief and practical instruments capable of screening for language impairment are lacking. The present study aimed to examine the ability of the Mini Linguistic State Examination (MLSE) to distinguish between healthy individuals and PPA patients, as well as to differentiate among PPA subtypes, within Greek clinical practice. Materials and Methods: Τhe Mini Linguistic State Examination (MLSE), a 15-min detailed examination of different language domains, was administered to a group of clinically diagnosed PPA patients and a group of healthy participants. In addition, PPA patients completed a neuropsychological test battery assessing memory, language, executive, and visuospatial functions. Patterns of patients’ brain perfusion were also explored with single-photon emission computed tomography. Results: Comparisons between PPA patients and healthy controls revealed significant differences across all MLSE domains (all p < 0.001), and receiver operating characteristic analyses demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy, with AUC values exceeding 0.90 across language domains and perfect classification for the total MLSE score (AUC = 1.00, p < 0.001). Conclusions: These findings indicate that the MLSE is able to detect distinct patterns of deficits and to provide a comprehensive overview of patients’ linguistic profiles, supporting its clinical utility and diagnostic potential for differentiating PPA variants.

Background/Objectives: The mechanisms underlying the positive association between reading and rhythmic skills remain unclear. Our goal was to systematically test between two major explanations: the Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF), which highlights the relation between rhythm and speech encoding, and a competing explanation based on rhythm’s role in enhancing prediction within visual and auditory sequences. Methods: We compared beat versus duration perception for their associations with encoding and sequence learning (prediction-related) tasks, using both visual and auditory sequences. We also compared these associations for Portuguese vs. Greek participants, since Portuguese stress-timed rhythm is more compatible with music-like beats lasting around 500 ms, in contrast to the syllable-timed rhythm of Greek. If rhythm acts via speech encoding, its effects should be more salient in Portuguese. Results: Consistent with the TSF’s predictions, we found a significant association between beat perception and auditory encoding in Portuguese but not in Greek participants. Correlations between time perception and sequence learning in both modalities were either null or insufficiently supported in both groups. Conclusions: Altogether, the evidence supported the TSF-related predictions in detriment of the Rhythm-as-Predictor (RaP) hypothesis.