Formulaic Language in Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease: Complementary Effects of Subcortical and Cortical Dysfunction

Abstract

Purpose: The production of formulaic expressions (conversational speech formulas, pause fillers, idioms, and other fixed expressions) is excessive in the left hemisphere and deficient in the right hemisphere and in subcortical stroke. Speakers with Alzheimer's disease (AD), having functional basal ganglia, reveal abnormally high proportions of formulaic language. Persons with Parkinson's disease (PD), having dysfunctional basal ganglia, were predicted to show impoverished formulaic expressions in contrast to speakers with AD. This study compared participants with PD, participants with AD, and healthy control (HC) participants on protocols probing production and comprehension of formulaic expressions. Method: Spontaneous speech samples were recorded from 16 individuals with PD, 12 individuals with AD, and 18 HC speakers. Structured tests were then administered as probes of comprehension. Results: The PD group had lower proportions of formulaic expressions compared with the AD and HC groups. Comprehension testing yielded opposite contrasts: participants with PD showed significantly higher performance compared with participants with AD and did not differ from HC participants. Conclusions: The finding that PD produced lower proportions of formulaic expressions compared with AD and HC supports the view that subcortical nuclei modulate the production of formulaic expressions. Contrasting results on formal testing of comprehension, whereby participants with AD performed significantly worse than participants with PD and HC participants, indicate differential effects on procedural and declarative knowledge associated with these neurological conditions. C linical descriptions of formulaic language in aphasic speech have flourished for more than 150 years under a wide variety of terms. Formulaic language, in its modern conception, consists of fixed, unitary expressions known to a language community with their characteristic form, meaning, and usage conditions. Typical examples are conversational speech formulas ("You betcha," "You've got to be kidding," and "Say what?"), expletives ("heck"), idioms ("as the crow flies," "That's the way the cookie crumbles"), proverbs ("When it rains, it pours"), and other conventionalized expressions ("all things being equal," "in the meantime," and "the long and the short of it is"; Altenberg, 1998;Biber, 2009;Kuiper, 2004;Wray, 2002). These expressions share the features of fixed or canonical form; conventionalized, often nonliteral meaning; and specific relations to discourse context.As reviewed in Van Lancker (1973, 1975, 1994, formulaic language has its venerable beginnings in observations by J. Hughlings Jackson (1874aJackson ( /1932Jackson ( , 1874bJackson ( /1932, who labeled the preserved expressions seen in adults with language disability following left-brain damage automatic or nonpropositional speech. Examples cited by Hughlings Jackson include phrases belonging classically to the conception of formulaic expressions: "Take care," "That's a lie," "Good bye," "Oh dear," and "Bles...

Automated analysis of language production in aphasia and right-hemisphere damage: frequency and collocation strength

“…Formulas can therefore be seen as enabling communication, however they also limit the scope of communication and are less suited for novel situations or expressing new ideas (Wray, 2011). While an increase in formulaic language has been observed in aphasia and dementia, there are reports of decreased use of formulas in speakers with right hemisphere damage (Van Lancker Sidtis & Postman, 2006) and also in Parkinson's disease (Van Lancker Sidtis, Choi, Alken, & Sidtis, 2015). Van Lancker and collaborators interpret these data as support for a dual-process model, in which novel/analytic language is largely dependent upon left hemisphere computational mechanisms, while formulas are represented in the right hemisphere and subcortical structures (see also Van Lancker Sidtis, 2012).…”

“Because It Sounds Right”: A Guiding Light of Speaker Knowledge

“…Production competence arises from the basal ganglia, a collection of subcortical nuclei, where motor gestures are facilitated, utilizing procedural memory (Ullman, 2004;Graybiel, 2005Graybiel, , 2008Mishkin, Malamut, & Bachevalier, 1984). Persons with Parkinson's disease, who suffer from dysfunction of the basal ganglia, produce significantly fewer familiar phrases than matched healthy speakers (Illes, 1989; Van Lancker Sidtis, Choi, Alken, & Sidtis, 2016;Bridges, Van Lancker Sidtis, & Sidtis, 2013).…”

Evaluation, treatment, and analysis of a rare case of motor speech systems dyscoordination syndrome

“…Given that performance varied with speech modes, as has been reported (12–19), structured sets, representing selected differing modes were created and offered during therapy. Previous studies have revealed that motor speech efficacy differs for conversation and repetition (12–18).…”

“…Previous studies have revealed that motor speech efficacy differs for conversation and repetition (12–18). Other studies suggested that formulaic and novel expressions are differently processed in the brain (19). Current work with the participant indicated more successful production on continuously voiced material.…”