Reading and writing habits compensate for aging effects in speech connectedness

Abstract

We investigate the association of short- and long-range recurrences (speech connectedness) with age, education, and reading and writing habits (RWH) in typical aging using an oral narrative production task. Oral narrative transcriptions were represented as word-graphs to measure short- and long-range recurrences. Speech connectedness was explained by the combination of age, education, and RWH, and the strength of RWH’s coefficient reflects the aging effect.

Neuroanatomical correlates of macrostructural receptive abilities in narrative discourse in unilateral left hemisphere stroke: A behavioural and voxel‐based morphometry study

“…Thus, the level of education, SES, and RWH most probably interact to shape cerebral, cultural, social, linguistic, and cognitive development and abilities (Ardila et al., 2010; Huettig et al., 2018; Tessaro et al., 2020). Furthermore, our recent results suggest that RWH are associated with macrostructural measures of spoken discourse production comparing HC to unilateral stroke in left and right hemisphere (Schneider et al., 2022) and in healthy adults and older adults (Malcorra et al., 2022b). This highlights the importance of not only investigating the role of the level of education in discourse retelling and comprehension but also including other variables which have an impact on cognitive performance such as RWH.…”

“…During adulthood, the frequency of reading and writing practice is a measure widely used to capture information about RWH. It is important to notice that individuals with low levels of education can still have rich and frequent reading and writing activities at work or in informal settings, which has been shown to compensate for lower levels of education in cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, including language (Pawlowski et al., 2012; Cotrena et al., 2016; Malcorra et al., 2022a). Moreover, the number of years of education in developing countries may not reflect the quality of education as it normally does in developed countries.…”

Limited connectedness of spontaneous speech may be a marker of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease

“…Connectedness refers to the degree to which elements of spontaneous speech are related syntactically (i.e., through grammatical structure) or semantically (i.e., through content; Voppel et al, 2021 ). Language connectedness decreases with aging, albeit to a lesser degree among those who read and write more ( Malcorra et al, 2022 ). And there is some suggestion that language connectedness can differentiate persons with AD from controls ( Bertola et al, 2014 ; Malcorra et al, 2021 ).…”