title: Lexical retrieval in discourse: an early indicator of Alzheimer's dementia.
abstract: We examined the progression of lexical-retrieval deficits in individuals with neuropathologically determined Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 23) and a comparison group without criteria for AD (n = 24) to determine whether linguistic changes were a significant marker of the disease. Our participants underwent multiple administrations of a neuropsychological battery, with initial administration occurring on average 16 years prior to death. The battery included the Boston Naming Test (BNT), a letter fluency task (FAS) and written description of the Cookie Theft Picture (CTP). Repeated measures analysis revealed that the AD-group showed progressively greater decline in FAS and CTP lexical performance than the comparison group. Cross-sectional time-specific group comparisons indicated that the CTP differentiated performance between the two groups at 7-9 years prior to death and FAS and BNT only at 2-4 years. These results suggest that lexical-retrieval deficits in written discourse serve as an early indicator of AD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland .
authors.forename: Seija
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pekkala
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wiener
authors.forename: Jayandra J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Himali
authors.forename: Alexa S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Beiser
authors.forename: Loraine K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Obler
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.forename: Sanford
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Auerbach
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Seshadri
authors.forename: Philip A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Rhoda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Au
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014825:Vocabulary