The Potential of Language Tasks for Identifying Senile Dementia

Abstract

More than two million elderly Americans suffer from senile dementia, an age-related disease affecting memory, intellect, and communication. The purpose of this study was to explore the diagnostic efficacy of language tasks for identifying senile dementia. The performance of 35 dementia patients was compared to that of 28 normal senescents on five language tasks and certain psychological measures reputed to be sensitive to the disease such as the Block Design and Similarities subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Mental Status Questionnaire (MSQ), and the Nonsense Syllable Learning Tests. Language tasks presented were: Story-retelling, Naming, Sentence Disambiguation, Verbal Expression, and Sentence Correction. A discriminant analysis found the Sentence Correction Task, the MSQ, and the Verbal Expression Test to best discriminate patients with senile dementia from normal aged subjects. Semantic functions were found to be more vulnerable than phonologic and syntactic to the effects of progressive cortical atrophy.

Characteristics of Language Performance in Four Groups of Patients Attending a Memory Clinic

“…Test results for normal subjects have been published for the Boston Naming Test (Van Gorp et al, 1986), Word Fluency (animals, towns and phonemic fluency) (Hart et al, 1988) and Story Retelling (immediate and delayed) (Bayles and Boone, 1982). Van Gorp (1986) reported that his subjects were of relatively high educational status, which suggests comparability with our patient group.…”

“…Published work reports comparisons of various combinations of these clinical groups, AD, VaD, depressed and normal elderly (Bayles and Boone, 1982;Hier et al, 1985;Emery and Breslau, 1989) Both dementia groups in this study have mean scores on the MMSE and CAMCOG indicating mild impairment. All dementia patients had NART scores of above average, indicating a high degree of intellectual ability.…”

“…(vii) Story Retelling (Bayles and Boone, 1982)-a short story is read to the patient and has Tests (ii), (iii) and (vi) were devised specifically for use in the clinic. It is acknowledged that tests relate to more than one domain.…”

Expressive language characteristics in probable Alzheimer's disease

“…Bayles and Boone (1982) found that a task requiring subjects to identify semantic errors in spoken sentences was the most discriminating of five language tasks in distinguishing dementia subjects from normally ageing individuals. Emery and Emery (1 984) reported dementia subjects demonstrating a hierarchical performance across several language tasks.…”

Naming and semantic judgements in dementia of the alzheimer's type

“…Recent findings suggest that communication difficulties exist at all stages of dementia (Bayles 1986, Bayles and Boone 1982, Obler and Albert 1981. However, the most prominent difficulties involve the semantic component of language while syntax and phonology remain relatively intact, at least until the severe stages of the disease (Appell et al 1982, Bayles and Boone 1982, Hier et al 1985.…”