Language processing in Mandarin sentence repetition in people with Alzheimer's disease

Sentence repetition is frequently adopted in speech-language pathology assessment batteries. In-depth examination of language processing skills and errors generated by people with Alzheimer's disease of their sentence-repetition performance, however, has rarely been conducted. This article aimed to investigate the language processing of Mandarin sentence repetition in people with Alzheimer's disease compared to healthy controls. Working memory, linguistic factors, error types, and error frequency are examined and discussed.

Speech samples were collected from 14 Mandarin-speaking older adults with Alzheimer's disease, 14 control younger adults, and 17 control older adults. Participants completed a working memory task and a Mandarin sentence repetition task. Scores obtained in these tasks were calculated. Errors in the repetition task were additionally analysed.

Statistical results indicated a significantly strong and positive association between working memory and Mandarin repetition performance among these three groups. A significant between-group difference was also observed concerning the effects of dementia, age, and linguistic factors.

This study contributes to understanding and characterisation of language processing and error distribution in Mandarin sentence repetition in people with Alzheimer's disease. It also highlights clinical implications associated with using sentence repetition tasks to investigate early-stage language and cognitive decline.