Category-specific semantic impairment in Alzheimer's disease and temporal lobe dysfunction: a comparative study.
In this paper we report an in-depth case study of a patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease who presented with a category-specific disorder relating to processing of knowledge about animate objects in the presence of spared knowledge of inanimate objects. Impairments appeared not only in a confrontation naming task but also on a range of visual knowledge tasks, such as drawing from memory or part-whole matching. The pattern of impairment was compared to that shown by a post-encephalitic patient who manifested a well-documented category-specific deficit for animate objects. Both patients' performance was compatible with an interpretation in terms of impairment at the level of the structural description of objects within the semantic system, as general encyclopaedic knowledge was largely preserved. Temporal lobe damage may be the cause of memory breakdown in both patients.
Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Universita degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
A
A
Mauri
I
I
Daum
G
G
Sartori
G
G
Riesch
N
N
Birbaumer
D000328:Adult; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology