Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’ s disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. Language disturbances appear early in AD and constitute an important element of the diagnosis, although they are usually overshadowed by impairment of memory and executive functions. It is known that...

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Main Authors: Eda Can, Gülmira Kuruoğlu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical University 2019-04-01
Series:Психолінгвістика
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Online Access:https://psycholing-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/514
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author Eda Can
Gülmira Kuruoğlu
author_facet Eda Can
Gülmira Kuruoğlu
author_sort Eda Can
collection DOAJ
description Alzheimer’ s disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. Language disturbances appear early in AD and constitute an important element of the diagnosis, although they are usually overshadowed by impairment of memory and executive functions. It is known that language is impaired disproportionally in AD: the semantic and pragmatic language systems are more impaired than syntax. However, syntactic features can also be impaired in the moderate and severe stages of AD. The features of language can be different depending on the onset of AD. AD is classified into two subtypes: early-onset (before 65 years of age) and late-onset (over 65 years of age). Late-onset is the most common form of AD and the aim of this study is to reveal the language changes of 39 patients with late-onset AD and compare it with an age/education-matched control group that has no neurological and psychological problems. The data was transcribed using transcript symbols following Du Bois. The results revealed that although the number of the sentences were more, the speech amount of late-onset AD patients was smaller than the control group. Late-onset AD patients mostly produced sentences in “Picnic” picture description test and fewer sentences in random speech test. Moreover, the sentence length of LAD patients was bigger in “Cookie theft” picture description test and smaller in “Picnic” picture description test. However, their general performance about the speech amount was poor. The other findings were about the coordinated and compound sentences. It was revealed that late-onset AD patients used similar number of coordinated and compound sentences compared to their aged matched peers. In conclusion, it is clear that the syntactic features of LAD patients is not completely different from the people with normail aging.
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spelling doaj-art-803a3975bde345d8ad0c5872ed4156ca2025-08-20T03:34:02ZengPereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Hryhorii Skovoroda State Pedagogical UniversityПсихолінгвістика2309-17972415-33972019-04-01252506810.31470/2309-1797-2019-25-2-50-68514Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s DiseaseEda Can0Gülmira Kuruoğlu1Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of LinguisticsDokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Letters, Department of LinguisticsAlzheimer’ s disease (AD) is the most common cause of cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly. Language disturbances appear early in AD and constitute an important element of the diagnosis, although they are usually overshadowed by impairment of memory and executive functions. It is known that language is impaired disproportionally in AD: the semantic and pragmatic language systems are more impaired than syntax. However, syntactic features can also be impaired in the moderate and severe stages of AD. The features of language can be different depending on the onset of AD. AD is classified into two subtypes: early-onset (before 65 years of age) and late-onset (over 65 years of age). Late-onset is the most common form of AD and the aim of this study is to reveal the language changes of 39 patients with late-onset AD and compare it with an age/education-matched control group that has no neurological and psychological problems. The data was transcribed using transcript symbols following Du Bois. The results revealed that although the number of the sentences were more, the speech amount of late-onset AD patients was smaller than the control group. Late-onset AD patients mostly produced sentences in “Picnic” picture description test and fewer sentences in random speech test. Moreover, the sentence length of LAD patients was bigger in “Cookie theft” picture description test and smaller in “Picnic” picture description test. However, their general performance about the speech amount was poor. The other findings were about the coordinated and compound sentences. It was revealed that late-onset AD patients used similar number of coordinated and compound sentences compared to their aged matched peers. In conclusion, it is clear that the syntactic features of LAD patients is not completely different from the people with normail aging.https://psycholing-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/514Alzheimer, late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, coordinated sentences, compound sentences, sentence length.
spellingShingle Eda Can
Gülmira Kuruoğlu
Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
Психолінгвістика
Alzheimer, late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, coordinated sentences, compound sentences, sentence length.
title Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
title_fullStr Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full_unstemmed Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
title_short Language Changes in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
title_sort language changes in late onset alzheimer s disease
topic Alzheimer, late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease, coordinated sentences, compound sentences, sentence length.
url https://psycholing-journal.com/index.php/journal/article/view/514
work_keys_str_mv AT edacan languagechangesinlateonsetalzheimersdisease
AT gulmirakuruoglu languagechangesinlateonsetalzheimersdisease