Microlinguistic aspects of the oral narrative in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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.
de Lira
Juliana Onofre
JO
Department of Speech Therapy, São Paulo Federal University, Brazil. julianalira.fono@epm.br
Ortiz
Karin Zazo
KZ
Campanha
Aline Carvalho
AC
Bertolucci
Paulo Henrique Ferreira
PH
Minett
Thaís Soares Cianciarullo
TS
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