Frequency and Severity of Semantic Deficits in a Consecutive Memory Clinic Cohort

Abstract

Background/Aim: Semantic memory deficits have been shown in dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by group comparisons. The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency of impairments on tests with semantic content in patients with dementia, MCI (amnestic and non-amnestic) and affective disorders. Methods: A Famous faces test, Boston Naming Test and Category fluency were applied in 114 consecutive memory clinic patients and 95 healthy participants (all participants were 60 years old or older; dementia/MCI patients had Mini-Mental State Examination scores ≥20). Results: Fifty-three patients were classified with dementia, 36 with MCI (14 amnestic, 22 non-amnestic) and 25 with affective disorders. Dementia and MCI patients differed significantly from the control group on all tests. Patients with dementia and MCI had impairments in about 40% of the cases (on the most sensitive tests). However, patients with affective disorders also had mild impairments on tests tapping semantic memory (25% were impaired on the most sensitive tests). Impairments on the Famous faces test were more frequently found in dementia and MCI as compared to patients with affective disorders. Conclusion: Short tests with semantic memory content are sensitive to changes in dementia and MCI, but impairments on such tests may also be found in other diseases, e.g. affective disorders.

Altered Frontal Lateralization Underlies the Category Fluency Deficits in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

“…We found that although the two MCI groups did not significantly differ in the category fluency impairment, this impairment was more pronounced in the naMCI group compared to the aMCI group. Our finding is consistent with some previous reports of slightly better category fluency performance in (single-domain) aMCI compared to non-amnestic or dysexecutive MCI (Brandt and Manning, 2009 ; Libon et al, 2010 ; Vogel et al, 2014 ). However, our finding is not consistent with other findings of slightly better category fluency performance in naMCI than aMCI (Weakley et al, 2013 ; Rinehardt et al, 2014 ).…”

“…Our behavioral findings are consistent with previous findings of word generation deficits in individuals with MCI (Nutter-Upham et al, 2008 ; Brandt and Manning, 2009 ; Murphy et al, 2006 ; Libon et al, 2010 ; Wang et al, 2011 ; Price et al, 2012 ; Bertola et al, 2014 ; Rinehardt et al, 2014 ; Vogel et al, 2014 ; Weakley et al, 2013 ), suggesting that impaired retrieval of semantic knowledge may already be observed at the earliest stage of transition between normal aging and dementia. Moreover, we found that individuals with MCI generated fewer animal subcategories and make fewer switches between subcategories.…”

“…The test has been found to be a significant predictor of future cognitive decline in both the cognitively normal (e.g., Tierney et al, 2005 ) and MCI populations (e.g., Molinuevo et al, 2011 ; Venneri et al, 2011 ). Numerous empirical studies have consistently found that individuals with MCI, irrespective of their subtypes, exhibited category fluency impairment (Murphy et al, 2006 ; Nutter-Upham et al, 2008 ; Brandt and Manning, 2009 ; Libon et al, 2010 ; Wang et al, 2011 ; Price et al, 2012 ; Weakley et al, 2013 ; Bertola et al, 2014 ; Rinehardt et al, 2014 ; Vogel et al, 2014 ). This impairment has been mainly attributed to their deficits in generating new subcategories or switching between subcategories (Raoux et al, 2008 ; Price et al, 2012 ; Weakley et al, 2013 ; Bertola et al, 2014 ), although impairment in clustering (Price et al, 2012 ) may also underlie their fluency deficits.…”

Semantic memory and depressive symptoms in patients with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease

“…Identification of famous faces was reported to be impaired in 14% of predementia AD patients and 39% in AD patients in an earlier study (Vogel et al, 2005). In a subsequent study of the same group identification of famous faces was reported to be impaired in 33% of naMCI patients, in 43% of aMCI patients, and 43% of AD patients, respectively (Vogel et al, 2014). These numbers are similar to the present results.…”

Depressive symptoms may be associated with semantic memory decline in elderly adults

“…Some studies have shown that semantic memory is affected by the presence of depressive symptoms. [10][11][12] Brunet et al 10 conducted a study to verify the relationship between depressive symptoms and semantic memory in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment-amnestic (MCIa) and depression. The results showed that depressive symptoms modulate the presentation of semantic memory deficits in people with MCIa.…”