Oral and Written Naming in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Longitudinal Study

Title:Oral and Written Naming in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Longitudinal Study

Volume: 15 Issue: 12

Author(s): Maria Gonzalez-Nosti*, Fernando Cuetos and Carmen Martinez

Affiliation:

• University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, Hospital of Cabuenes, Asturias,Spain

Keywords: Alzheimer`s disease, picture-naming, anomia, writing disorders, cognitive decline, longitudinal study.

Abstract: Background: The expressive difficulties in patients with Alzheimer’s dementia have been extensively studied, mainly in oral language. However, the deterioration of their writing processes has received much less attention.

Objective: The present study aims to examine the decline of the performance of patients with Alzheimer’s disease in both oral and written picture-naming tasks.

Method: Sixty-four participants (half with Alzheimer’s disease and half healthy elderly) were compared in the oral and written versions of a picture-naming task. Follow-up lasted two and a half years and patients were evaluated every six months.

Results: Cross-sectional data indicate that the controls performed better than the patients, and both groups showed a different pattern of errors. In terms of longitudinal data, the results show a similar pattern of deterioration in both tasks. In terms of errors, lexical-semantics were the most numerous at the beginning and their number remained constant throughout all evaluations. In the case of non-responses, there was a significant increase in the last session, both in oral and written naming.

Conclusion: These results replicate those found in previous studies and highlight the utility of the naming task to detect minimal changes in the evolution of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Cite this article as:

Gonzalez-Nosti Maria *, Cuetos Fernando and Martinez Carmen , Oral and Written Naming in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Longitudinal Study, Current Alzheimer Research 2018; 15 (12) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567205015666180813145402