title: Microlinguistic aspects of the oral narrative in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by memory loss and cognitive impairment. Phonological, syntactic, semantic and discursive aspects of language may also be affected. Analysis of micro- and macrolinguistic abilities of discourse may assist in diagnosing AD. The aim of this study was to identify changes in the discourse (lexical errors and syntactic index) of AD patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  121 elderly subjects narrated a story based on a seven-figure picture description.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with AD presented more word-finding difficulties, revisions and repetitions, and the syntactic index was lower than controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Performance in microlinguistics at the lexical and syntactic levels was lower than expected in participants with AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech Therapy, São Paulo Federal University, Brazil. julianalira.fono@epm.br
authors.forename: Juliana Onofre
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: de Lira
authors.forename: Karin Zazo
authors.initials: KZ
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: Aline Carvalho
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Campanha
authors.forename: Paulo Henrique Ferreira
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Bertolucci
authors.forename: Thaís Soares Cianciarullo
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Minett
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior