Language changes in Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review of verb processing

Williams, Eric H.; McAuliffe, Megan J.; Theys, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105041

Cited by 15 publications

(26 citation statements)

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“…To avoid the caveats of narrative discourse and to be able to assess specific domains of morphosyntax, various studies on AD have opted for the use of structured experimental tasks that lead to constrained production, such as sentence completion , constrained sentence production , sentence repetition and naming (for two systematic reviews of experimental studies assessing the production of inflectional morphology and verb processing in AD, see Auclair‐Ouellet, 2015, and Williams et al., 2021, respectively).…”

Section: Protocols For Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Crosslinguistic studies have investigated morphosyntactic comprehension in AD with the use of both offline (sentence–picture matching, grammaticality judgment) and online experimental tasks (cross‐modal naming, speeded sentence acceptability judgment, auditory moving window (self‐paced listening), word detection, reading) that tap on inflectional morphology (e.g., tense, aspect and various types of agreement), as well as on the effect of verb transitivity, argument structure and syntactic complexity in sentence comprehension (Table S2 in the additional supporting information presents the comprehension tasks that have been used, illustrating the research areas that have been assessed through them as well as main conclusions regarding strengths and deficits in AD) (for two systematic reviews of studies that examine the comprehension of inflectional morphology and verb processing in AD, see Auclair‐Ouellet, 2015, and Williams et al., 2021, respectively).…”

Section: Protocols For Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Methodologies for assessing morphosyntactic ability in people with Alzheimer's disease

Varlokosta

Fragkopoulou

Arfani

et al. 2023

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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BackgroundThe detection and description of language impairments in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's Disease (AD) play an important role in research, clinical diagnosis and intervention. Various methodological protocols have been implemented for the assessment of morphosyntactic abilities in AD; narrative discourse elicitation tasks and structured experimental tasks for production, offline and online structured experimental tasks for comprehension. Very few studies implement and compare different methodological protocols; thus, little is known about the advantages and disadvantages of each methodology.AimsTo discuss and compare the main behavioral methodological approaches and tasks that have been used in psycholinguistic research to assess different aspects of morphosyntactic production and comprehension in individuals with AD at the word and sentence levels.MethodsA narrative review was conducted through searches in the scientific databases Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, MITCogNet, PubMed. Only studies written in English, that reported quantitative data and were published in peer‐reviewed journals were considered with respect to their methodological protocol. Moreover, we considered studies that reported research on all stages of the disease and we included only studies that also reported results of a healthy control group. Studies that implemented standardized assessment tools were not considered in this review.Outcomes & ResultsThe main narrative discourse elicitation tasks implemented for the assessment of morphosyntactic production include interviews, picture‐description and story narration, whereas the main structured experimental tasks include sentence completion, constrained sentence production, sentence repetition and naming. Morphosyntactic comprehension in AD has been assessed with the use of structured experimental tasks, both offline (sentence‐picture matching, grammaticality judgment) and online (cross‐modal naming,speeded sentence acceptability judgment, auditory moving window, word detection, reading). For each task we considered studies that reported results from different morphosyntactic structures and phenomena in as many different languages as possible.Conclusions & ImplicationsOur review revealed strengths and weaknesses of these methods but also directions for future research. Narrative discourse elicitation tasks as well as structured experimental tasks have been used in a variety of languages, and have uncovered preserved morphosyntactic production but also deficits in people with AD. A combination of narrative discourse elicitation and structured production tasks for the assessment of the same morphosyntactic structure has been rarely used. Regarding comprehension, offline tasks have been implemented in various languages, whereas online tasks have been mainly used in English. Offline and online experimental paradigms have often produced contradictory results even within the same study. The discrepancy between the two paradigms has been attributed to the different working memory demands they impose to the comprehender or to the different parsing processes they tap. Strengths and shortcomings of each methodology are summarized in the paper, and comparisons between different tasks are attempted when this is possible. Thus, the paper may serve as a methodological guide for the study of morphosyntax in AD and possibly in other neurodegenerative diseases.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on this subject For the assessment of morphosyntactic abilities in AD, various methodological paradigms have been implemented: narrative discourse elicitation tasks and structured experimental tasks for production, and offline and online structured experimental tasks for comprehension. Very few studies implement and compare different methodological protocols; thus, little is known about the advantages and disadvantages of each methodology.What this paper adds to existing knowledge The paper presents an overview of methodologies that have been used to assess morphosyntactic production and comprehension of people with AD at the word and sentence levels. The paper summarizes the strengths and shortcomings of each methodology, providing both the researcher and the clinician with some directions in their endeavour of investigating language in AD. Also, the paper highlights the need for further research that will implement carefully scrutinized tasks from various experimental paradigms and will explore distinct aspects of the AD patients’ morphosyntactic abilities in typologically different languages.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The paper may serve as a reference point for (psycho‐)linguists who wish to study morphosyntactic abilities in AD, and for speech and language therapists who might need to apply morphosyntactic protocols to their patients in order to assess them or design appropriate therapeutic interventions for production and comprehension deficits.

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Section: Protocols For Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Protocols For Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodologies for assessing morphosyntactic ability in people with Alzheimer's disease

Varlokosta

Fragkopoulou

Arfani

et al. 2023

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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“…These characteristics are related to the predominant involvement of left temporal lobe regions linked to semantic memory processing (11,13,14) . Conversely, studies investigating verb fluency in AD reported that people with AD showed poorer performance than their healthy peers (12,15) and those with mild cognitive impairment (16) . This task was also indicative of the conversion from cognitive health to mild cognitive impairment (17) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Clustering and switching analysis of verb fluency in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Beber

Liedtke

Oliveira

et al. 2023

CoDAS

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Purpose To investigate verb fluency performance in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease compared with healthy older adults by analyzing total correct responses, number of clusters, average cluster size, and number of switches. Methods This is a case-control study of 39 healthy older adults and 29 older adults with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Verb fluency performance was analyzed in terms of total number of correct verbs retrieved, number of clusters, average cluster size, and number of switches. To obtain the study outcomes, we previously conducted a procedure for categorization of the verbs that would compose the clusters. The classification of verbs was adapted for this study, including assessment by raters and analysis of inter-rater reliability. Results Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showed significantly poorer performance than healthy controls in the number of switches and total number of correct verbs retrieved. The two groups did not differ significantly in the other measures. Conclusion In this study, individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showed impaired verb fluency, characterized by a reduced number of verbs retrieved and fewer transitions between verb categories. The findings suggest that, in Alzheimer’s disease, verb fluency is more sensitive to cognitive deficits resulting from executive dysfunction than from semantic disruption.

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“…AD is a cognitive–communication disorder, that is, a neurodegenerative disease in which impairments in cognition, mainly in memory, lead to deficits in communication and language (Badarunisa et al., 2015). Memory impairment, resulting from degenerative processes in the medial temporal lobe, is considered as the most prominent symptom of AD (Williams et al., 2021). Yet, many studies on AD also agree about significant impairments in language (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech changes in old age: Methodological considerations for speech‐based discrimination of healthy ageing and Alzheimer's disease

Ivanova

Martínez-Nicolás

Meilán

2023

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

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BackgroundRecent evidence suggests that speech substantially changes in ageing. As a complex neurophysiological process, it can accurately reflect changes in the motor and cognitive systems underpinning human speech. Since healthy ageing is not always easily discriminable from early stages of dementia based on cognitive and behavioural hallmarks, speech is explored as a preclinical biomarker of pathological itineraries in old age. A greater and more specific impairment of neuromuscular activation, as well as a specific cognitive and linguistic impairment in dementia, unchain discriminating changes in speech. Yet, there is no consensus on such discriminatory speech parameters, neither on how they should be elicited and assessed.AimsTo provide a state‐of‐the‐art on speech parameters that allow for early discrimination between healthy and pathological ageing; the aetiology of these parameters; the effect of the type of experimental stimuli on speech elicitation and the predictive power of different speech parameters; and the most promising methods for speech analysis and their clinical implications.Methods & ProceduresA scoping review methodology is used in accordance with the PRISMA model. Following a systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO and CINAHL, 24 studies are included and analysed in the review.Main ContributionThe results of this review yield three key questions for the clinical assessment of speech in ageing. First, acoustic and temporal parameters are more sensitive to changes in pathological ageing and, of these two, temporal variables are more affected by cognitive impairment. Second, different types of stimuli can trigger speech parameters with different degree of accuracy for the discrimination of clinical groups. Tasks with higher cognitive load are more precise in eliciting higher levels of accuracy. Finally, automatic speech analysis for the discrimination of healthy and pathological ageing should be improved for both research and clinical practice.Conclusions & ImplicationsSpeech analysis is a promising non‐invasive tool for the preclinical screening of healthy and pathological ageing. The main current challenges of speech analysis in ageing are the automatization of its clinical assessment and the consideration of the speaker's cognitive background during evaluation.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on the subject Societal aging goes hand in hand with the rising incidence of ageing‐related neurodegenerations, mainly Alzheimer's disease (AD). This is particularly noteworthy in countries with longer life expectancies. Healthy ageing and early stages of AD share a set of cognitive and behavioural characteristics. Since there is no cure for dementias, developing methods for accurate discrimination of healthy ageing and early AD is currently a priority. Speech has been described as one of the most significantly impaired features in AD. Neuropathological alterations in motor and cognitive systems would underlie specific speech impairment in dementia. Since speech can be evaluated quickly, non‐invasively and inexpensively, its value for the clinical assessment of ageing itineraries may be particularly high.What this paper adds to existing knowledge Theoretical and experimental advances in the assessment of speech as a marker of AD have developed rapidly over the last decade. Yet, they are not always known to clinicians. Furthermore, there is a need to provide an updated state‐of‐the‐art on which speech features are discriminatory to AD, how they can be assessed, what kind of results they can yield, and how such results should be interpreted. This article provides an updated overview of speech profiling, methods of speech measurement and analysis, and the clinical power of speech assessment for early discrimination of AD as the most common cause of dementia.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? This article provides an overview of the predictive potential of different speech parameters in relation to AD cognitive impairment. In addition, it discusses the effect that the cognitive state, the type of elicitation task and the type of assessment method may have on the results of the speech‐based analysis in ageing.

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Language changes in Alzheimer’s disease: A systematic review of verb processing

Cited by 15 publications

References 87 publications

Methodologies for assessing morphosyntactic ability in people with Alzheimer's disease

Methodologies for assessing morphosyntactic ability in people with Alzheimer's disease

Clustering and switching analysis of verb fluency in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Speech changes in old age: Methodological considerations for speech‐based discrimination of healthy ageing and Alzheimer's disease

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