Risk factors
Dementia information
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is caused by damage and loss to brain cells in the front and sides of the brain, called the frontal and temporal lobes. However, the causes for this loss in PPA are not yet clear.
In this section:
What causes primary progressive aphasia?
Most cases of dementia are caused by a mixture of factors including:
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age
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genes
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health
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lifestyle
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and environment.
We cannot change our age or genes. However, we can control some lifestyle factors that increase our risk of dementia.
Keeping socially connected, learning a new skill and regularly challenging your brain may help delay or reduce the impact of dementia. But they have not been shown to reduce the risk of PPA specifically.
Does primary progressive aphasia run in families?
In rare cases, semantic dementia or progressive non-fluent aphasia can be caused by a faulty gene that is passed down in families. The main genes involved are called:
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MAPT
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Progranulin (or GRN)
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C9ORF72
These genes are also associated with other forms of dementia.
In these cases there is a strong history of family members being affected at a similar age, usually in their 40s or 50s. These genes are also associated with other forms of frontotemporal dementia.
Downloads
Dementia information
Read more about treatments for dementia, including information on treating depression, anxiety and agitation and for information on antipsychotics.
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PDF, 1.16 MB, 13 pages
Find out more
You can find out more about current diagnosis and treatments for each type of dementia on the following pages:
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This information was updated in April 2025 and is due to be reviewed in April 2027. It was written by Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Information Services team with input from lay and expert reviewers. Please get in touch if you’d like a version with references or in a different format.
This information is produced with support from The Perfume Shop who had no input into the content.
