Textual reading comprehension and naming in Alzheimer's disease patients

Rinaldi, Juciclara; Sbardelloto, Gabriela; Kristensen, Christian Haag; Parente, Maria Alice de Mattos Pimenta

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642009DN20200010

Abstract

Among linguistic-cognitive failures, the retelling of stories and lexical disorders occur from the onset of AD. Recent studies have discussed whether lexical failures in AD patients include naming actions.

Objectives:

The aims of this study were to verify naming and reformulation of action difficulties in AD patients and their relationship with the retelling of stories. Our main questions were: Are there two linguistic abilities impaired in the early stages of AD? Is there some correlation between the capacity of naming actions and the retelling of stories?

Methods:

We assessed 28 elderly participants: 17 with probable AD and 11 control subjects, with schooling ³4 years. The textual reading comprehension was measured using four stories with descriptive and narrative textual structure. The lexical production was verified by 17 actions on video, assessed by the participants' first and second verbal emissions.

Results:

The results showed that the retelling of stories is a task that discriminates patients with AD from healthy individuals. The naming and reformulation of actions tasks did not show significant differences among the patients and their controls. A positive correlation was found between the difficulties in retelling stories and the reformulation of the naming of actions.

Conclusions:

These results confirm previous findings that show the preservation of naming actions in patients with AD, which involve familiar actions, and that the retelling of short stories is an instrument that discriminates patients with AD from healthy elders. Results also suggest that the difficulties in retelling are related a breakdown in reformulating information, perhaps stemming from mechanisms of decreased memory work.

Key words:
Alzheimer's; textual comprehension; lexical production; memory; language

Resumo

Entre as falhas lingüísticas, o reconto de histórias e os problemas lexicais ocorrem desde o início da DA. Estudos recentes têm discutido se as falhas lexicais nos pacientes com DA incluem a nomeação de ações.

Objetivos:

Os objetivos deste estudo foram verificar as dificuldades de nomeação e reformulação de ações em pacientes com DA e sua relação com o reconto de histórias. As principais questões que nortearam esse estudo foram: As duas habilidades lingüísticas estão prejudicadas no início da DA? Há alguma correlação entre a capacidade de nomeação de ações e de reconto de histórias?

Métodos:

Foram avaliados 28 idosos: 17 com DAs prováveis e 11 sem demência, com escolaridade ³4 anos. A compreensão de leitura textual foi avaliada através de quatro histórias com estrutura textual descritiva e narrativa. A nomeação foi verificada por 17 ações em vídeo, tendo primeira e segunda emissão para cada participante.

Resultados:

Os resultados mostraram que o reconto de histórias é uma tarefa que discrimina pacientes com DA de idosos normais; já as tarefas de nomeação e de reformulação de ações não apresentaram diferenças significativas entre os pacientes e seus controles. Foi encontrada uma correlação positiva entre as dificuldades de reconto de histórias e a reformulação da nomeação de ações.

Conclusões:

Esses resultados confirmam achados anteriores que mostram a preservação da nomeação de ações em pacientes com DA, nas ações familiares e que o reconto de histórias curtas é um instrumento que discrimina pacientes com DA de idosos normais. Também sugerem que as dificuldades de reconto estão relacionadas a falhas de reformulação de informações, talvez oriundas de mecanismos de memória de trabalho diminuída.

Palavras-chave:
Alzheimer; compreensão textual; produção lexical; memória; linguagem

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References

¹
Braver TS, Satpute AB, Rush BK, Racine CA, Barch DM. Context processing and context maintenance in healthy aging and early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Psychol Aging 2005;20:33-46.
²
Chapman SB, Zientz J, Weiner M, Rosenberg R, Frawley W, Burns MH. Discourse changes in early Alzheimer disease, mild cognitive impairment, and normal aging. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2002;16:177-186.
³
Gély-Nargeot M, Ska B, Touchon J. Text structure and content modulate the recall of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Brain Cogn 2002;48:371-375.
⁴
Parente MAMP, Kieling CC, Rinaldi J, Holderbaum CS. The impact of the interactivity of the hypertext in the recall of aged and of Alzheimer's patients. Revue Parole, Bruxelas 2004;29/30:189-216.
⁵
Orange JB, Kertesz A. Discourse analyses and dementia. Brain Lang 2000;71:172-174.
⁶
Bonini A. Reflexões em torno de um conceito psicolingüístico de tipo de texto. DELTA 1999;15:301-318.
⁷
Labov W, Waletzky J. Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In: J Helm, editor. Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle, USA: University of Washington Press; 1967:12-44.
⁸
Hudon C, Belleville S, Gély-Nargeot MC, Souchay C, Chertkow H. Memory for gist and detail information in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology 2006;20:566-577.
⁹
Johnson DK, Storandt M, Balota DA. Discourse analysis of logical memory recall in normal aging and in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Neuropsychology 2003; 17:82-92.
¹⁰
Kintsch W, van Dijk TA. Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychol Rev 1978;85:363-394.
¹¹
De Salles J, Parente MAMP. Compreensão textual em alunos de segunda e terceira séries: uma abordagem cognitiva. Estudos de Psicologia 2004;9:71-80.
¹²
Fávero L, Koch IV. Lingüística textual: Introdução. São Paulo, Brasil: Cortez Editora; 2005.
¹³
Trabasso T, van den Broek P. Causal thinking and the representation of narrative events. J Mem Lang 1985;4:612-630.
¹⁴
Trabasso T, van den Broek P, Suh S. Logical necessity and transitivity of causal relations in stories. Discourse Processes 1989;32:1-25.
¹⁵
Miceli G, Silveri M, Villa G, Caramazza A. On the basis for the agrammatic's difficulty in producing main verbs. Cortex 1984;20:207-220.
¹⁶
Damasio A, Tranel D. Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. Neurobiology 1993;90: 4957-4960.
¹⁷
Perani D, Cappa S, Schnur T, et al. The neural correlates of verb and noun processing: a PET Study. Brain 1999;122:2337-2344.
¹⁸
Tyler L, Russell, R, Fadili J, Cappa H. The neural representation of nouns and verbs: PET Studies. Brain 2001;124:1619-1634.
¹⁹
Cappa SF, Binetti G, Pezzini A, Padovani A, Ruzzini L, Trabucci M. Object and action naming in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Neurology 1998;50:351-355.
²⁰
Bushell CM, Martin A. Automatic semantic priming of nouns and verbs in patients with Alzheimer disease. Neuropsychologia 1997;35:1059-1067.
²¹
Kim M, Thompson CK. Verb deficits in Alzheimer's disease and agrammatism: implications for lexical organization. Brain Lang 2004;88:1-20.
²²
Robinson K, Grossman M, White-Devine T, D'Esposito M. Category-specific difficulty naming with verbs in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 1996;47:178-182.
²³
Maguire M, Hirsh-Pasek K, Golinkoff R. A unified theory of word learning: putting verb acquisition in context. In: K Hirsh-Pasek, R Golinkoff, editors. Action Meets Word: How children learn verbs. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006:364-392.
²⁴
American Psychiatry Association. Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV. Washington, 1994.
²⁵
McKhann G, Drachman D, Folstein M, Katzman R, Price D, Stadlan E M. Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the Auspices of Departament of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology 1984;34:939-944.
²⁶
Hughes CP, Berg L, Danziger WL, Coben LA, Martin RL. A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. Br J Psychiatry 1982;140:566-572.
²⁷
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR. Mini-Mental State: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 1975;12:189-198.
²⁸
Chaves MLF, Izquierdo I. Differential diagnosis between dementia and depression: A study of efficiency increment. Acta Neurol Scand 1992;85:378-382.
²⁹
Yesavage JA, Brink TL, Rose TL, et al. Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report. J Psychiatr Res 1983;17:37-49.
³⁰
Almeida O, Almeida S. Reliability of the Brazilian version of the ++abbreviated form of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) short form. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 1999;57:421-426.
³¹
Duvignau K, Gaume B. Linguistic, Psycholinguistic and Computational Approaches to the Lexicon: For Early Verb-Learning. A special issue on 'learning'. Cognitive Systems, 2004;6-2:255-269.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Apr-Jun 2008

History

Received
20 Feb 2008
Accepted
22 Apr 2008

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] ¹
Braver TS, Satpute AB, Rush BK, Racine CA, Barch DM. Context processing and context maintenance in healthy aging and early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Psychol Aging 2005;20:33-46.

[2] ²
Chapman SB, Zientz J, Weiner M, Rosenberg R, Frawley W, Burns MH. Discourse changes in early Alzheimer disease, mild cognitive impairment, and normal aging. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2002;16:177-186.

[3] ³
Gély-Nargeot M, Ska B, Touchon J. Text structure and content modulate the recall of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Brain Cogn 2002;48:371-375.

[4] ⁴
Parente MAMP, Kieling CC, Rinaldi J, Holderbaum CS. The impact of the interactivity of the hypertext in the recall of aged and of Alzheimer's patients. Revue Parole, Bruxelas 2004;29/30:189-216.

[5] ⁵
Orange JB, Kertesz A. Discourse analyses and dementia. Brain Lang 2000;71:172-174.

[6] ⁶
Bonini A. Reflexões em torno de um conceito psicolingüístico de tipo de texto. DELTA 1999;15:301-318.

[7] ⁷
Labov W, Waletzky J. Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In: J Helm, editor. Essays on the verbal and visual arts. Seattle, USA: University of Washington Press; 1967:12-44.

[8] ⁸
Hudon C, Belleville S, Gély-Nargeot MC, Souchay C, Chertkow H. Memory for gist and detail information in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology 2006;20:566-577.

[9] ⁹
Johnson DK, Storandt M, Balota DA. Discourse analysis of logical memory recall in normal aging and in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Neuropsychology 2003; 17:82-92.

[10] ¹⁰
Kintsch W, van Dijk TA. Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychol Rev 1978;85:363-394.

[11] ¹¹
De Salles J, Parente MAMP. Compreensão textual em alunos de segunda e terceira séries: uma abordagem cognitiva. Estudos de Psicologia 2004;9:71-80.

[12] ¹²
Fávero L, Koch IV. Lingüística textual: Introdução. São Paulo, Brasil: Cortez Editora; 2005.

[13] ¹³
Trabasso T, van den Broek P. Causal thinking and the representation of narrative events. J Mem Lang 1985;4:612-630.

[14] ¹⁴
Trabasso T, van den Broek P, Suh S. Logical necessity and transitivity of causal relations in stories. Discourse Processes 1989;32:1-25.

[15] ¹⁵
Miceli G, Silveri M, Villa G, Caramazza A. On the basis for the agrammatic's difficulty in producing main verbs. Cortex 1984;20:207-220.

[16] ¹⁶
Damasio A, Tranel D. Nouns and verbs are retrieved with differently distributed neural systems. Neurobiology 1993;90: 4957-4960.

[17] ¹⁷
Perani D, Cappa S, Schnur T, et al. The neural correlates of verb and noun processing: a PET Study. Brain 1999;122:2337-2344.

[18] ¹⁸
Tyler L, Russell, R, Fadili J, Cappa H. The neural representation of nouns and verbs: PET Studies. Brain 2001;124:1619-1634.

[19] ¹⁹
Cappa SF, Binetti G, Pezzini A, Padovani A, Ruzzini L, Trabucci M. Object and action naming in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Neurology 1998;50:351-355.

[20] ²⁰
Bushell CM, Martin A. Automatic semantic priming of nouns and verbs in patients with Alzheimer disease. Neuropsychologia 1997;35:1059-1067.

[21] ²¹
Kim M, Thompson CK. Verb deficits in Alzheimer's disease and agrammatism: implications for lexical organization. Brain Lang 2004;88:1-20.

[22] ²²
Robinson K, Grossman M, White-Devine T, D'Esposito M. Category-specific difficulty naming with verbs in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 1996;47:178-182.

[23] ²³
Maguire M, Hirsh-Pasek K, Golinkoff R. A unified theory of word learning: putting verb acquisition in context. In: K Hirsh-Pasek, R Golinkoff, editors. Action Meets Word: How children learn verbs. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006:364-392.

[24] ²⁴
American Psychiatry Association. Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV. Washington, 1994.

[25] ²⁵
McKhann G, Drachman D, Folstein M, Katzman R, Price D, Stadlan E M. Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the Auspices of Departament of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology 1984;34:939-944.

[26] ²⁶
Hughes CP, Berg L, Danziger WL, Coben LA, Martin RL. A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. Br J Psychiatry 1982;140:566-572.

[27] ²⁷
Folstein MF, Folstein SE, McHugh PR. Mini-Mental State: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res 1975;12:189-198.

[28] ²⁸
Chaves MLF, Izquierdo I. Differential diagnosis between dementia and depression: A study of efficiency increment. Acta Neurol Scand 1992;85:378-382.

[29] ²⁹
Yesavage JA, Brink TL, Rose TL, et al. Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: a preliminary report. J Psychiatr Res 1983;17:37-49.

[30] ³⁰
Almeida O, Almeida S. Reliability of the Brazilian version of the ++abbreviated form of Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) short form. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 1999;57:421-426.

[31] ³¹
Duvignau K, Gaume B. Linguistic, Psycholinguistic and Computational Approaches to the Lexicon: For Early Verb-Learning. A special issue on 'learning'. Cognitive Systems, 2004;6-2:255-269.

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