Communication and pragmatic breakdowns in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Bambini, Valentina; Arcara, Giorgio; Martinelli, Ilaria; Bernini, Sara; Alvisi, Elena; Moro, Andrea; Cappa, Stefano F.; Ceroni, Mauro

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2015.12.002

Cited by 48 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…This hypothesis should be tested in further work. If ALS does not affect compositional processes (lexical structures and semantic combinatorics), but mainly the selection of compositionally-generated alternatives, we might find similar effects of relaxed or absent constraints on interpretation in discourse and pragmatic processes, consistent with earlier work (Staios et al, 2013; Ash et al, 2014; Bambini et al, 2016). …”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Some studies have reported degraded sentence expression, in quantity, rates and errors, in speech production and grammar (Ash et al, 2015; Tsermentseli et al, 2015, 2016). Recent research has also provided evidence for deficits in the construction of narratives and other discourse-level or pragmatic aspects of language in ALS (Staios et al, 2013; Bambini et al, 2016). For example, Ash et al (2014) used the children book “Frog where are you?,” a collection of 24 detailed drawings to be ordered in a story-like sequence, depicting numerous failed attempts made by a boy to find his pet frog that has escaped from a jar.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Formal Semantics in the Neurology Clinic: Atypical Understanding of Aspectual Coercion in ALS Patients

et al. 2016

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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the motor system with subtle adverse effects on cognition. It is still unclear whether ALS also affects language and semantics, and if so, what aspects and processes exactly. We investigated how ALS patients understand verb phrases modified by temporal preposition phrases, e.g., “To watch TV for half an hour.” Interpretation here requires operations such as aspectual coercion that add or delete elements from event structures, depending on temporal modifiers, and constraints on coercion, which make combinations with certain modifiers not viable. Using a theoretically-motivated experimental design, we observed that acceptance rates for aspectual coercion were abnormally high in ALS patients. The effect was largest for the more complex cases of coercion: not those that involve enrichment of event structures (“To switch on the TV in half an hour,” where a number of failed attempts must be included in the interpretation) but those that, if applied, would result in deletion of event structure elements (“To repair the TV for half an hour”). Our experimental results are consistent with a deficit of constraints on coercion, and not with impaired semantic processes or representations, in line with recent studies suggesting that verb semantics is largely spared in ALS.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formal Semantics in the Neurology Clinic: Atypical Understanding of Aspectual Coercion in ALS Patients

et al. 2016

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“…Pragmatic impairment has been related at least in part to executive dysfunction, which is a common feature of ALS patients, and linked to the involvement of prefrontal regions (Ash et al, 2014). A recent study highlights a relative independence of pragmatic from executive domain in ALS (Bambini et al, 2016). These findings shed light on pragmatic impairment as a possible additional dimension of ALS deserving further consideration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first is characterized by word finding difficulty, deficits in verbal fluency, naming and single word comprehension (Phukan et al, 2007; Taylor et al, 2013; Leslie et al, 2015). Pragmatic impairment is attested by the failure of ALS patients to maintain the discourse topic, to provide the appropriate amount of information and salient elements, and to recall non-explicit information and non-literal meanings (Ash et al, 2014; Bambini et al, 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connected Speech in Neurodegenerative Language Disorders: A Review

et al. 2017

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Language assessment has a crucial role in the clinical diagnosis of several neurodegenerative diseases. The analysis of extended speech production is a precious source of information encompassing the phonetic, phonological, lexico-semantic, morpho-syntactic, and pragmatic levels of language organization. The knowledge about the distinctive linguistic variables identifying language deficits associated to different neurodegenerative diseases has progressively improved in the last years. However, the heterogeneity of such variables and of the way they are measured and classified limits any generalization and makes the comparison among studies difficult. Here we present an exhaustive review of the studies focusing on the linguistic variables derived from the analysis of connected speech samples, with the aim of characterizing the language disorders of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, including primary progressive aphasia, Alzheimer's disease, movement disorders, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A total of 61 studies have been included, considering only those reporting group analysis and comparisons with a group of healthy persons. This review first analyzes the differences in the tasks used to elicit connected speech, namely picture description, story narration, and interview, considering the possible different contributions to the assessment of different linguistic domains. This is followed by an analysis of the terminologies and of the methods of measurements of the variables, indicating the need for harmonization and standardization. The final section reviews the linguistic domains affected by each different neurodegenerative disease, indicating the variables most consistently impaired at each level and suggesting the key variables helping in the differential diagnosis among diseases. While a large amount of valuable information is already available, the review highlights the need of further work, including the development of automated methods, to take advantage of the richness of connected speech analysis for both research and clinical purposes.

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“…This is a recently developed and standardized battery for assessing pragmatics in adult Italian-speaking populations , already used with neurological (Bambini, Arcara, Martinelli, et al, 2016;Carotenuto et al, 2018) and psychiatric patients (Bambini, Arcara, Bechi, et al, 2016). This is a recently developed and standardized battery for assessing pragmatics in adult Italian-speaking populations , already used with neurological (Bambini, Arcara, Martinelli, et al, 2016;Carotenuto et al, 2018) and psychiatric patients (Bambini, Arcara, Bechi, et al, 2016).…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia

et al. 2018

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The study assessed the pragmatic skills of 19 well-compensated Italian-speaking young adults with dyslexia compared with controls. A comprehensive pragmatic assessment tool was employed, targeting production and comprehension (Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates [APACS]). Participants were also administered a series of standardized tests to assess verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities, including executive functions and social cognition tests. Data were analysed with the aim of understanding whether pragmatic abilities are compromised in dyslexia and of exploring associations between pragmatic performance and other cognitive domains. The performance of the dyslexia group was poorer than that of the control group in both expressive and receptive modalities. Data showed diffuse problems across several domains, with the greatest challenge posed by inferring nonliteral meanings, which indicates that pragmatic inefficiency is an important aspect of the linguistic and communicative profile of dyslexia in adulthood. Explorative correlations highlighted a relation between pragmatic performance and reading and vocabulary abilities, as well as between pragmatics and working memory. This suggests that pragmatic difficulties are strongly tied to the most distinctive aspects of dyslexia, namely, phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, pseudo-word repetition, whereas the link with high-level executive functions and Theory of Mind is negligible.

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Communication and pragmatic breakdowns in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

Cited by 48 publications

References 54 publications

Formal Semantics in the Neurology Clinic: Atypical Understanding of Aspectual Coercion in ALS Patients

Formal Semantics in the Neurology Clinic: Atypical Understanding of Aspectual Coercion in ALS Patients

Connected Speech in Neurodegenerative Language Disorders: A Review

Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia

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