title: Semantic feature knowledge and picture naming in dementia of Alzheimer's type: a new approach.
abstract: This study addresses continuing controversies concerning the nature of semantic impairment in early dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), and the relationship between conceptual knowledge and picture naming. A series of analyses of fine-grained feature knowledge data show that: (1) distinctive features of concepts were more vulnerable than shared; (2) the amount of attribute knowledge about a concept was associated reliably, and in a graded fashion, with the ability to name a picture of that item; (3) sensory features were differentially important in naming; and (4) the degree of disruption to different types of attribute knowledge did not vary between items from living and nonliving domains. These findings are discussed in the context of contemporary cognitive and computational models of semantic memory organisation.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Alexandra House, 17 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AR, UK. p.garrard@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Garrard
authors.forename: Matthew A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lambon Ralph
authors.forename: Karalyn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Katherine H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hodges
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012660:Semantics