Syntactic comprehension deficits in Alzheimer's disease

Syntactic comprehension of German patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type was investigated and compared to healthy controls matched with respect to age, sex, and education. Special attention was directed at syntactic structures, which, in contrast to a language like English, are feasible in a g...

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Hauptverfasser: Bickel, Claudia (VerfasserIn) , Pantel, Johannes (VerfasserIn) , Eysenbach, Katrin (VerfasserIn) , Schröder, Johannes (VerfasserIn)
Dokumenttyp: Article (Journal)
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 25 May 2002
In: Brain and language
Year: 2000, Jahrgang: 71, Heft: 3, Pages: 432-448
ISSN:1090-2155
DOI:10.1006/brln.1999.2277
Online-Zugang:Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1006/brln.1999.2277
Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X99922770
Volltext
Verfasserangaben:Claudia Bickel, Johannes Pantel, Katrin Eysenbach, Johannes Schröder
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Zusammenfassung:Syntactic comprehension of German patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type was investigated and compared to healthy controls matched with respect to age, sex, and education. Special attention was directed at syntactic structures, which, in contrast to a language like English, are feasible in a grammatically rich language like German. In a sentence picture matching paradigm, only semantically reversible sentences were used. Syntactic complexity ranged from simple active voice sentences to more complex sentences like center-embedded object relative sentences. In comparison to their controls, patients showed a deficit in nearly all categories. Their performance was not influenced by age, but was heavily influenced by the degree of cognitive impairment. Patients with mild cognitive impairment, as defined by a MMSE score of 20 or higher, showed only slight difficulties in syntactic processing, whereas patients with moderate to severe impairment (MMSE < 20) did not perform above chance limits in most syntactic categories. It appears as though syntactic comprehension is only mildly affected in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and is rather severely impaired in more advanced stages. In the present report, results are discussed in terms of working memory demands for syntactic processing.
Beschreibung:Available online 25 May 2002
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Beschreibung:Online Resource
ISSN:1090-2155
DOI:10.1006/brln.1999.2277