title: Semantic range and relevance of emotive utterances in patients with frontotemporal degeneration.
abstract: Patterns of aberrant language due to lateralized frontal brain lesions have been described. The present study investigated the consequences of lateralized lesion for aspects of semantic range and relevance in speech of patients with frontotemporal degeneration. Demented patients with predominantly left (n=10) and right (n=4) brain degeneration as well as 5 healthy controls participated. Significant differences were found concerning semantic range and relevance in descriptions of emotionally loaded pictures within the demented group and between the demented group and the controls. The demented individuals' speech was less varied and relevant in contrast to the healthy individuals. The speech of the left hemispheric group was more relevant but also more stereotypic and unspecified than that of the right hemispheric group. The results are discussed in terms of impaired semantic retrieval and in relation to lateralization of lesion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Logopedics, Division of Geriatric Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge University Hospital, SE 14186 Huddinge, Sweden. ing-mari.tallberg@klinvet.ki.se
authors.forename: Ing-Mari
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Tallberg
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wångmar
authors.forename: Lars-Olov
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Wahlund
authors.forename: Ove
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Almkvist
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary