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P2‐283: Sensitivity of cognition measures in a longitudinal study of healthy elderly, amnestic MCI and mild‐to‐moderate Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Chandler Julie,
Marsico Mark,
Zhu Xing Shu,
Markwick Arwen,
Jager Celeste
Publication year - 2012
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.2012.05.991
Subject(s) - psychology , dementia , episodic memory , cognition , neuropsychology , audiology , cognitive decline , alzheimer's disease , cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery , cognitive impairment , verbal learning , recall , gerontology , developmental psychology , disease , spatial memory , medicine , working memory , cognitive psychology , neuroscience
semantic) and Language (comprehension, writing, repetition, naming, and reading). Distinguishing between Fluency and Language is important because distinct aspects of language appear to decline independently, as reflected in MCI; e.g., recent evidence of early onset of decline in fluency (both phonemic and semantic) but not in vocabulary (Singh-Manoux, et al 2012). Additionally, recent research indicates association of MCI and a subtle decline in syntactic and semantic factors involved in complex sentence formation, components not tested by ACE-R (Sherman et al, 2011, Lust et al 2011; see also Kemper et al 1993, Almor et al 1999). Methods: In this study, we investigate early language changes by comparing results in three populations (amnestic MCI; n 1⁄4 13, ages 65-80, healthy aging; n 1⁄4 14, ages 65-80, and young controls; n 1⁄4 10, ages 20-29) on the ACE-R (overall scores, fluency and language subscores) to results on psycholinguistic tests of syntactic and semantic processing of complex sentences (elicited imitation). Statistical analysis was by a logistic-linear mixed model with binomial error assumption and a logit link function. Results: Results show that while the overall ACE-R scores and ‘fluency’ subscore differ significantly between the young controls and the two aging groups, they do not differ significantly between the two aging groups (healthy and MCI). The ACE-R Language subscore showed no difference across the groups. Psycholinguistic tests of linguistic performance in complex sentences did show a significant difference between Healthy Aging and MCI populations. Regressions of linguistic performance in complex sentences on both ACE-R language and fluency subscores were significant in the Healthy Aging group, and regressions on fluency (but not language) subscores were significant in the MCI group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that attention to psycholinguistic factors may increase our sensitivity to early changes in the language domain in MCI.