Language performance in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: a comparative review.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) manifests as memory impairment in the absence of dementia and progresses to Alzheimer's disease (AD) at a rate of around 15% per annum, versus 1-2% in the general population. It thus constitutes a primary target for investigation of early markers of AD. Language deficits occur early in AD, and performance on verbal tasks is an important diagnostic criterion for both AD and MCI. We review language performance in MCI, compare these findings to those seen in AD, and identify the primary issues in understanding language performance in MCI and selecting tasks with diagnostic and prognostic value.
Department of Psychology/Centre for Research in Human Development, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Vanessa
V
Taler
Natalie A
NA
Phillips
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D007807:Language Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology