Non‐literal language deficits in mild cognitive impairment

Cardoso, Sandra; Silva, Dina; Marôco, João; Mendonça, Alexandre de; Guerreiro, Manuela

doi:10.1111/psyg.12101

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…A degree of difficulty in complex syntactic comprehension is also found in healthy ageing, but the difficulty is more pronounced in AD, even during the MCI stage. Patients with early AD show difficulty in understanding both literal and non-literal speech, and the more complex the discourse is, the worse the performance [57]. Once again, the most dominant problems are related to the semantics of language, followed by lexical difficulties [58].…”

Section: Language As Gateway To Semantic Memory In Healthy Ageing and Admentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

et al. 2018

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Relatively spared during most of the timeline of normal aging, semantic memory shows a subtle yet measurable decline even during the pre-clinical stage of Alzheimer's disease. This decline is thought to reflect early neurofibrillary changes and impairment is detectable using tests of language relying on lexical-semantic abilities. A promising approach is the characterization of semantic parameters such as typicality and age of acquisition of words, and propositional density from verbal output. Seminal research like the Nun Study or the analysis of the linguistic decline of famous writers and politicians later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease supports the early diagnostic value of semantic processing and semantic memory. Moreover, measures of these skills may play an important role for the prognosis of patients with mild cognitive impairment.

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Section: Language As Gateway To Semantic Memory In Healthy Ageing and Admentioning

confidence: 99%

Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

et al. 2018

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“…MCI patients have presented with difficulty using pragmatic skills in tests of proverb meaning interpretation [35-37] and irony comprehension [38]. Although personal semantic knowledge appears to remain intact in MCI, autobiographical recollection of the episodic details associated with a happening experienced during a specific time and place are reduced when compared to same-aged controls [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type: Quantitatively or Qualitatively Different?

Jokel¹,

Lima²,

Fernandez³

et al. 2019

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord Extra

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Background/Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore language differences between individuals diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment multiple domain (aMCIm) and those with probable Alzheimer’s disease, with a goal of (i) characterizing the language profile of aMCIm and (ii) determining whether the profiles of dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT) and aMCIm individuals are on a continuum of one diagnostic entity or represent two distinct cognitive disorders. Methods: Language data from 28 patients with consensus diagnosis of aMCIm and DAT derived from a retrospective chart review were compared to that of healthy controls. Results: A non-parametric statistic established that there was no significant difference between groups in age, years of education or duration of symptoms and that expressive language was found to be relatively intact in both patient groups. In contrast, both groups exhibited significant impairments on receptive language tests and on linguistically complex tasks that rely on episodic memory and executive functions. Individuals with aMCIm and DAT present with configurations of language features that are largely in parallel to each other and reflect predominantly quantitative differences. Conclusion: Language tests provide an important contribution to the diagnostic process in their capacity to identify language impairments at an early stage. Understanding the nature of language decline is critically important to the intervention process as this information would inform cognitive intervention approaches aimed at promoting quality of life in people living with MCI and dementia.

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“…We further demonstrate that our effects are specific to bvFTD and not observable in brain-damaged controls with MCI. While evidence suggests that pragmatic deficits, including in proverb interpretation, exist in MCI (Leyhe et al, 2011; Cardoso et al, 2014), such findings may be a consequence of experimental confounds related to stimulus length or “frozen” meanings, and potentially associating findings with impaired episodic memory retrieval rather than impaired inferential processing. More work is needed to investigate this possibility.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

More than words: Extra-Sylvian neuroanatomic networks support indirect speech act discourse comprehension in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

Healey

Howard

Ungrady

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Indirect speech acts responding 'I forgot to wear my watch today' to someone who asked for the time are ubiquitous in daily conversation, but are understudied in current neurobiological models of language. To comprehend an indirect speech act like this one, listeners must not only decode the lexical-semantic content of the utterance, but also make a pragmatic, bridging inference. This inference allows listeners to derive the speaker's true, intended meaning in the above dialogue, for example, that the speaker cannot provide the time. In the present work, we address this major gap by asking non-aphasic patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD, n=21) and brain-damaged controls with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=17) to judge simple question-answer dialogues of the form: 'Do you want some cake for dessert?' 'I'm on a very strict diet right now', and relate the results to structural and diffusion MRI. Accuracy and reaction time results demonstrate that subjects with bvFTD, but not MCI, are selectively impaired in indirect relative to direct speech act comprehension, due in part to their social and executive limitations, and performance is related to caregivers' judgment of communication efficacy. MRI imaging associates the observed impairment in bvFTD to cortical thinning not only in traditional language-associated regions, but also in fronto-parietal regions implicated in social and executive cerebral networks. Finally, diffusion tensor imaging analyses implicate white matter tracts in both dorsal and ventral projection streams, including superior longitudinal fasciculus, frontal aslant, and uncinate fasciculus. These results have strong implications for updated neurobiological models of language, and emphasize a core, language-mediated social disorder in patients with bvFTD.

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Non‐literal language deficits in mild cognitive impairment

Cited by 31 publications

References 33 publications

Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

Language in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type: Quantitatively or Qualitatively Different?

More than words: Extra-Sylvian neuroanatomic networks support indirect speech act discourse comprehension in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia

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