Non-literal language and semantic dementia

ABSTRACT Semantic dementia is characterized by fluent, phonologically adequate speech with various anomias and semantic paraphasias. Performance on semantic tasks is well documented in these patients, although little is known regarding performance on more complex language tasks, such as those involving non-literal language (interpretation of metaphors and proverbs and recognition of irony). Objective: To report the investigation of non-literal language in cases of semantic dementia. Methods: Two cases of semantic dementia were investigated for the presence of deficits in non-literal language abilities using the screening test for Alzheimer's disease with proverbs, metaphor test and irony test. Results: Both patients were found to have low performance on the tests applied, particularly for interpretation of proverbs. Conclusion: This poor performance was attributed largely to the characteristic semantic changes of the disease, but some frontal symptoms inherent to other forms of frontotemporal lobar degeneration were also observed which interfered in the testing, such as negativism, reduced attention span, concretism and perseverations.

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Planning ability impairments in probable Alzheimer's disease patients: Evidence from the Tower of London test

Dementia & Neuropsychologia ◽

10.1590/1980-57642016dn11-020006 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 137-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Corina Satler ◽

Luiza Guimarães ◽

Carlos Tomaz

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Poor Performance ◽

Test Results ◽

Tower Of London ◽

Inappropriate Behaviors ◽

Inhibitory Deficits ◽

Planning Ability ◽

Wide Range

ABSTRACT Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with progressive impairment of higher-level cognitive abilities. Previous research suggests that early impairment of executive functions occurs during the course of the disease, but few studies have specifically investigated planning ability in an AD population. Objective: The purpose of the current study was to examine whether AD patients retain the ability to plan ahead, by analyzing specificities of their behavior in successfully achieving a pre-established goal. Methods: Twenty-one AD patients and thirty-three elderly controls underwent a problem-solving assessment using the Tower of London (TOL) test. Results: AD patients were less accurate and less efficient than controls. AD patients also committed more mistakes. This indicates a decline in working memory and inhibitory deficits, resulting in impulsive and inappropriate behaviors. Conclusion: These results are in agreement with previous studies, showing executive function problems in patients with AD. Specifically, this study demonstrates the presence of planning ability deficits in AD, considering both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The wide range of analysis presented in this study can aid clinicians in identifying the nature of the poor performance of AD patients during a planning task.

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LANGUAGE AND DEMENTIA: NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0267190508080045 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 73-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Daniel Kempler ◽

Mira Goral

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Executive Function ◽

Cognitive Reserve ◽

Language Ability ◽

Semantic Dementia ◽

Language Abilities ◽

Nonfluent Aphasia ◽

Conceptual Organization ◽

The Relationship ◽

Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia

This article reviews recent evidence for the relationship between extralinguistic cognitive and language abilities in dementia. A survey of data from investigations of three dementia syndromes (Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia and progressive nonfluent aphasia) reveals that, more often than not, deterioration of conceptual organization appears associated with lexical impairments, whereas impairments in executive function are associated with sentence- and discourse-level deficits. These connections between extralinguistic functions and language ability also emerge from the literature on cognitive reserve and bilingualism that investigates factors that delay the onset and possibly the progression of neuropsychological manifestation of dementia.

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Is it enough for COVID-19 screening test? Limitation of swab test and general characteristics of mild symptom patients

Science Progress ◽

10.1177/00368504211026152 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 104 (2) ◽

pp. 003685042110261

Author(s):

Sungwoo Choi ◽

Hyo Jeong Choi ◽

Ho Jung Kim

Keyword(s):

Screening Test ◽

Community Treatment ◽

Upper Respiratory Tract ◽

Test Results ◽

Rt Pcr ◽

Pcr Assay ◽

Positive Rate ◽

Upper Respiratory ◽

Polymerase Chain ◽

Discharge Criteria

The most common method for SARS-CoV-2 testing is throat or nasal swabbing by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. In South Korea, drive-through swab test is used for screening system and community treatment centers (CTCs), which admit and treat confirmed COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms, are being used. This retrospective study was conducted on patients admitted to a CTC on March 6, 2020. A total of 313 patients were admitted. The nasal and throat swabs were collected from the upper respiratory tract, and a sputum test was performed to obtain lower respiratory samples. The positive rate of the first set of test, sputum test was higher than that of the swab test ( p = 0.011). In the second set of test, 1 week after the first ones, the rate of positive swab tests was relatively high ( p = 0.026). In the first set of test, 66 of 152 (43.4%) patients showed 24-h consecutive negative swab test results, when the sputum test results were considered together, that number fell to 29 patients (19.1%) ( p < 0.001). Also, in the second set of test, 63 of 164 (38.4%) patients met the discharge criteria only when the swab test was considered; that number fell to 30 (18.3%) when the sputum test results were also considered ( p < 0.001). Using the swab test alone is insufficient for screening test and discharge decision. Patients who may have positive result in the sputum test can be missed.

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Anhedonia in Semantic Dementia—Exploring Right Hemispheric Contributions to the Loss of Pleasure

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11080998 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 998

Author(s):

Siobhán R. Shaw ◽

Hashim El-Omar ◽

Siddharth Ramanan ◽

Olivier Piguet ◽

Rebekah M. Ahmed ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Temporal Lobe ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Right Hemisphere ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Semantic Dementia ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Functional Impairments ◽

Lobe Atrophy

Semantic dementia (SD) is a younger-onset neurodegenerative disease characterised by progressive deterioration of the semantic knowledge base in the context of predominantly left-lateralised anterior temporal lobe (ATL) atrophy. Mounting evidence indicates the emergence of florid socioemotional changes in SD as atrophy encroaches into right temporal regions. How lateralisation of temporal lobe pathology impacts the hedonic experience in SD remains largely unknown yet has important implications for understanding socioemotional and functional impairments in this syndrome. Here, we explored how lateralisation of temporal lobe atrophy impacts anhedonia severity on the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale in 28 SD patients presenting with variable right- (SD-R) and left-predominant (SD-L) profiles of temporal lobe atrophy compared to that of 30 participants with Alzheimer’s disease and 30 healthy older Control participants. Relative to Controls, SD-R but not SD-L or Alzheimer’s patients showed clinically significant anhedonia, representing a clear departure from premorbid levels. Overall, anhedonia was more strongly associated with functional impairment on the Frontotemporal Dementia Functional Rating Scale and motivational changes on the Cambridge Behavioural Inventory in SD than in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Voxel-based morphometry analyses revealed that anhedonia severity correlated with reduced grey matter intensity in a restricted set of regions centred on right orbitofrontal and temporopolar cortices, bilateral posterior temporal cortices, as well as the anterior cingulate gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus, bilaterally. Finally, regression and mediation analysis indicated a unique role for right temporal lobe structures in modulating anhedonia in SD. Our findings suggest that degeneration of predominantly right-hemisphere structures deleteriously impacts the capacity to experience pleasure in SD. These findings offer important insights into hemispheric lateralisation of motivational disturbances in dementia and suggest that anhedonia may emerge at different timescales in the SD disease trajectory depending on the integrity of the right hemisphere.

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Glial fibrillar acidic protein in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Journal of Neurochemistry ◽

10.1111/jnc.13399 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 136 (2) ◽

pp. 258-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Aiko Ishiki ◽

Maki Kamada ◽

Yuki Kawamura ◽

Chiaki Terao ◽

Fumiko Shimoda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cerebrospinal Fluid ◽

Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration ◽

Dementia With Lewy Bodies ◽

Lewy Bodies ◽

Acidic Protein ◽

Alzheimer’S Disease Dementia ◽

Glial Fibrillar Acidic Protein

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Trail Making Test Performance in Relation to Certain Experimenter, Test and Subject Variables

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1964.19.1.199 ◽

1964 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 199-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Oscar A. Parsons ◽

Harriet I. Maslow ◽

Freda Morris ◽

J. Peter Denny

Keyword(s):

Test Performance ◽

Screening Test ◽

Poor Performance ◽

Trail Making Test ◽

Psychiatric Disturbance ◽

The Poor ◽

Subject Variables ◽

Trail Making ◽

The Brain ◽

Order Of Administration

The Trail Making Test, previously reported highly effective in differentiating brain-damaged from non-brain-damaged Ss, was administered to 21 brain-damaged Ss and 63 non-brain-damaged Ss. Since the latter Ss performed at a level indistinguishable from that of the brain-damaged Ss, several studies were designed in an attempt to “explain” the poor performance of the non-brain-damaged Ss. The possible effects of behavioral agitation, anxiety, examiner differences, facility with letters of the alphabet, order of administration, and ego-involvement were investigated. Only anxiety was found to be significantly related to performance. However, in other analyses age, education, vocabulary, and degree of psychiatric disturbance were significantly related to performance. Until these variables are considered in the scoring system, it seems unlikely that the TMT will be effective as a general screening test for brain-damage.

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