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P3‐160: Syntactic complexity in patients with Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Minett Thaís Soares Cianciarullo,
Lira Juliana Onofre,
Campanha Aline Carvalho,
Ortiz Karin Zazo,
Bertolucci Paulo Henrique Ferreira
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.1726
Subject(s) - narrative , syntax , linguistics , psychology , cognition , disease , regression analysis , formal education , linear regression , regression , developmental psychology , medicine , mathematics , statistics , psychiatry , philosophy , pedagogy , pathology , psychoanalysis
Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a degenerative illness characterized by the damage of memory and other cognitive functions, among them language. Discourse is a natural form of communication which involves all the linguistic abilities. There is a controversy if syntactic aspect of the discourse is preserved in AD. Syntactic complexity is considered a useful measure of syntactic aspect. Purpose: To analyze the syntactic complexity of narrative discourse in individuals with AD. Methods: Cross-sectional study in which we evaluated 121 participants above of 60 years, divided in 2 groups: 61 controls and 60 AD, with more than 4 years of education level. Mini Mental State Examination and Adas-Cog Scale were applied and the individuals had been requested to tell a story about seven pictures that we presented to them. It was made an analysis of syntactic index (SI). The SI provided a measure of the syntactic complexity of discourse production. It was obtained by dividing the number of complex clauses (subordinate, coordinate and reduced) by the total number of clauses (simple and complex). It was used descriptive analysis and linear regression. The linear regression model was used to observe the differences between the groups, controlled by age, sex and education. Results: The AD group have presented 26,4% in SI and control group have presented 43,5% (CI 11,8-22,5, p 0,001). In regression analysis, it was observed for group -0,47 (CI -0,22 to -0,10, p 0,001). Conclusions: The individuals with DA have presented reduction in the syntactic complexity of narrative discourse.