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Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Language and Dementia: Neuropsychological Aspects
1Emerson College, Boston.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
|November 13, 2010
Summary
Cognitive impairments in dementia, like Alzheimer's disease, are linked to specific language deficits. Executive function decline correlates with sentence-level issues, while conceptual organization loss impacts word retrieval.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Dementia syndromes like Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, and progressive nonfluent aphasia are characterized by cognitive and language impairments.
- Understanding the relationship between extralinguistic cognitive functions and language abilities is crucial for diagnosing and managing dementia.
- Factors such as cognitive reserve and bilingualism may influence the onset and progression of dementia-related neuropsychological deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent evidence linking extralinguistic cognitive abilities and language impairments in dementia.
- To explore the association between specific cognitive deficits and distinct language problems across different dementia syndromes.
- To examine the role of cognitive reserve and bilingualism in modulating dementia's cognitive and linguistic manifestations.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of existing research on dementia syndromes.
- Analysis of data from investigations into Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, and progressive nonfluent aphasia.
- Synthesis of findings from studies on cognitive reserve and bilingualism in the context of dementia.
Main Results:
- Deterioration of conceptual organization is frequently associated with lexical impairments (word retrieval difficulties).
- Impairments in executive function are commonly linked to deficits at the sentence and discourse levels.
- The interplay between cognitive functions and language abilities is evident across various dementia types and influenced by factors like cognitive reserve.
Conclusions:
- Specific extralinguistic cognitive deficits correspond to particular language impairments in dementia.
- The findings highlight the interconnectedness of cognition and language in neurodegenerative diseases.
- Cognitive reserve and bilingualism may offer protective effects against the cognitive and linguistic decline seen in dementia.
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