Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:27:18.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language and dementia: a review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Siobhan Hart
Siobhan Hart*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Charing Cross Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Siobhan Hart, Department of Psychology, Charing Cross Hospital, Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8RF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

In the literature on dementia the presence or absence of language deficits has come to occupy a pivotal position with respect to certain nosological and nosographical issues. These are reviewed critically, together with the results of experimental investigations which have sought to elucidate the nature of the language deficit(s) in patients with dementia, especially that of the Alzheimer type. Attention is drawn to important gaps in current knowledge and suggestions are made regarding the direction of future research.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 99 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albert, M. (1978) Subcortical dementia in Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia, and Related Disorders (ed. Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. and Bick, K. L.), pp. 121–130. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Albert, M (1981) Changes in language with ageing. Seminars in Neurology 1, 43–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albert, M. L., Feldman, R. G. & Willis, A. L. (1974). The subcortical dementia of progressive supranuclear palsy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 37, 121–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Appell, J., Kertesz, A. & Fisman, M. (1982). A study of language functioning in Alzheimer patients. Brain and Language 17, 73–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, M. G. & Lawson, J. S. (1968). Nominal aphasia in dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry 114, 1351–1356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayles, K. A. (1982). Language function in senile dementia. Brain and Language 16, 265–280.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayles, K. A. & Boone, D. R. (1982). The potential of language tasks for identifying senile dementia. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 47, 210–217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayles, K. A. & Tomoeda, C. K. (1983). Confrontation naming impairment in dementia. Brain and Language 19, 98–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bayles, K. A, Tomoeda, C. K. & Caffrey, J. T. (1982). Language and dementia producing diseases. Communicative Disorders 7, 131–146.Google Scholar
Benson, D. F. (1975). Disorders of verbal expression. In Psychiatric Aspects of Neurological Disease (ed. Benson, D. F. and Blumer, D.), pp. 121–135. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
Benson, D. F. (1979). Neurologic correlates of anomia. In Studies in Neurolinguistics, Vol. 4 (ed. Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H. A.), pp. 293–328. Academic Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, D. F., Cummings, J. L. & Tsai, S. Y. (1982). Angular gyrus syndrome simulating Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Neurology 39, 16–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berg, L. (1984). Clinical dementia rating. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 339CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boller, F. & Dennis, M. (1979). Auditory Comprehension Clinical and Experimental Studies with the Token Test. Academic Press: New YorkGoogle Scholar
Bowen, F. P. (1976). Behavioural alterations in patients with basal ganglia lesions. In The Basal Ganglia (ed. Yahr, M. D.), pp. 169–180. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Breitner, J. C S. & Folstein, M. F. (1984). Familial Alzheimer's dementia: a prevalent disorder with specific clinical features. Psychological Medicine 14, 63–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brookshire, R. H. & Manthie, M. A. (1980). Speech and language disturbances in the elderly. In The Aging Nervous System (ed Maletta, G. J. and Pirozzolo, F. J.), pp. 241–263. Praeger: Basel.Google Scholar
Brun, A. & Gustafson, L (1978). Limbic lobe involvement in presenile dementia. Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences 226, 79–93.Google ScholarPubMed
Caird, W. K. & Hannah, F. (1964). Short-term memory disorder in elderly psychiatric patients. Diseases of the Nervous System 25, 564–568.Google ScholarPubMed
Chui, H. C, Teng, E. L., Henderson, V. W & Moy, A. C. (1985). Clinical subtypes of dementia of the Alzheimer type. Neurology 35, 1544–1550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Constantinidis, J. (1978). Is Alzheimer's disease a major form of senile dementia? Clinical, anatomical and genetic data. In Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders, Aging, Vol. 7 (ed. Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. and Bick, K L.), pp 15–25. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Constantinidis, J., Richard, J. & De Ajuriaguerra, J. (1978). Dementias with senile plaques and neurofibrillary changes. In Studies in Geriatric Psychiatry (ed. Isaacs, A. D. and Post, F.), pp. 119–152. Wiley: London.Google Scholar
Corkin, S. (1982) Some relationships between global amnesias and the memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease In Alzheimer's Disease: A Report of Progress in Research, Aging, Vol. 19 (ed. Corkin, S., Davis, K. L., Growdon, J. H., Usdin, E. and Wurtman, R. J.), pp. 149–164. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Corkin, S., Growdon, J. H., Nissen, M. J., Huff, F. J., Freed, D. M. & Sagar, H. J. (1984) Recent advances in the neuropsychological study of Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's Disease: Advances in Basic Research and Therapies (ed. Wurtman, R. J., Corkin, S. H. and Growdon, J. H.), pp. 75–93. Centre for Brain Sciences and Metabolism Charitable Trust Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Critchley, M. (1964). The neurology of psychotic speech. British Journal of Psychiatry 110, 353–364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. L. (1986). Subcortical dementia: neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and pathophysiology British Journal of Psychiatry 149, 682–697.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. L. & Benson, D. F. (1983). Dementia: A Clinical Approach. Butterworth: LondonGoogle Scholar
Cummings, J L & Benson, D. F. (1984). Subcortical dementia: review of an emerging concept. Archives of Neurology 41, 874–879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, J. L., Benson, D. F., Hill, M. A. & Read, S. (1985). Aphasia in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Neurology 35, 394–397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Renzi, E. & Faglioni, P. (1978). Normative data and screening power of a shortened version of the Token Test. Cortex 14, 41–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Renzi, E. & Ferrari, C. (1978) The Reporter's Test: a sensitive test to detect expressive disturbances in aphasics. Cortex 14, 279–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diesfeldt, H. F. A. (1985). Verbal fluency in senile dementia: an analysis of search and knowledge. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 4, 231–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Editorial (1978). Dementia–the quiet epidemic. British Medical Journal 1, 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, B., Dalby, M. A. & Dalby, A. (1970). Aphasic disturbances in presenile dementia. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Supplement, 43, 99–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folstein, M. F. & Breitner, J. C. S. (1981). Language disorder predicts familial Alzheimer's disease. Johns Hopkins Medical Journal 149, 145–147.Google ScholarPubMed
Gewirth, L. R., Shindler, A. G. & Hier, H. B. (1984). Altered patterns of word associations in dementia and aphasia. Brain and Language 21, 307–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, A. J. & Kendrick, D C. (1979). The Kendrick Battery for the Detection of Dementia in the Elderly. NFER Publishing Company: Windsor.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H. & Kaplan, E. (1976). TheAssessment of Aphasia and Related Disorders. Lea & Febiger: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Goodman, L. (1953). Alzheimer's disease: a clinico-pathologic analysis of twenty-three cases with a theory on pathogenesis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 117, 97–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamsher, K. (1981). Intelligence and aphasia. In Acquired Aphasia (ed. Sarno, M. T.), pp. 327–359. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Harding, G. F. A., Wright, C. & Orwin, A. (1985). Primary presenile dementia: the use of visual evoked potential as a diagnostic indicator. British Journal of Psychiatry 147, 532–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, S. (1985). Explorations of Cognitive Dysfunction in Dementia of Alzheimer Type. Unpublished Ph D. thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Hart, S. (1986). Towards a neuropsychology of Alzheimer's disease. Psynapse, Issue 3, 1.Google Scholar
Hart, S., Smith, C. M. & Swash, M. (1986). Assessing intellectual deterioration British Journal of Clinical Psychology 25, 119–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, S., Smith, C. M. & Swash, M. (1987). Word fluency in patients with early dementia of Alzheimer type. British Journal of Clinical Psychology (in the press).Google Scholar
Henderson, A. S. & Huppert, F. A. (1984). The problem of mild dementia Psychological Medicine 14, 5–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heyman, A., Wilkinson, W. E., Hurwitz, B. J., Schmechel, D., Sigmon, A. H., Weinberg, T., Helms, M. J. & Swift, M. (1983). Alzheimer's disease: genetic aspects and associated clinical disorders. Annals of Neurology 14, 507–515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hier, D. B., Hagenlocker, K. & Shindler, A. G. (1985). Language disintegration in dementia effects of etiology and severity. Brain and Language 25, 117–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hinton, D. R., Sadun, A A., Blanks, J. C. & Miller, C. A. (1986). Optic-nerve degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. New England Journal of Medicine 315, 485–487.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, C. P., Berg, L., Danziger, W. L., Coben, L A & Martin, R. L. (1982). A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry 140, 566–572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, W. (1970). Alzheimer's disease. Gerontologica Clinica 12, 129–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Isaacs, B. & Kennie, A. T. (1973). The Set Test as an aid to the detection of dementia in old people. British Journal of Psychiatry 123, 467–470.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jorm, A. F. (1985) Subtypes of Alzheimer's disease: a conceptual analysis and critical review. Psychological Medicine 15, 543–553CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katzman, R. (1976). The prevalence and malignancy of Alzheimer disease: a major killer. Archives of Neurology 33, 217–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaszniak, A. W., Fox, J., Gandell, D. L, Garron, D. C, Huckman, M. S., & Ramsey, R. G. (1978). Predictors of mortality in presenile and senile dementia. Annals of Neurology 3, 246–252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaszniak, A. W., Garron, D C. & Fox, J. (1979). Differential effects of age and cerebral atrophy upon span of immediate recall and paired-associate learning in older patients suspected of dementia. Cortex 15, 285–295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kertesz, A. (1980). Western Aphasia Battery University of Western Ontario London: Canada.Google Scholar
Kirshner, H. S., Webb, W. G. and Kelly, M. P. (1984). The naming disorder of dementia. Neuropsychologia 22, 23–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kopelman, M. D. (1985). Multiple memory deficits in Alzheimer type dementia: implications for pharmacotherapy. Psychological Medicine 15, 527–541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larner, S. (1977). Encoding in senile dementia and elderly depressives: a preliminary study. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 16, 379–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawson, J. S. & Barker, M. G. (1968). The assessment of nominal dysphasia in dementia; the use of reaction-time measures. British Journal of Medical Psychology 41, 411–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lesser, R. (1976). Verbal and non-verbal memory components in the Token Test. Neuropsychologia 14, 79–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lishman, W. A. (compiler) (1977). Senile and Presenile Dementias Report of the MRC Sub-Committee. Medical Research Council: London.Google Scholar
McHugh, P. R. & Folstein, M. F. (1975). Psychiatric syndromes of Huntington's chorea: a clinical and phenomenological study. In Psychiatric Aspects of Neurological Disease, (ed. Benson, D. F. and Blumer, D.), pp. 267–286. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D. & Stadlan, E. M. (1984). Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: report of the NINCDS-ADRDA work group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services task force on Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 34, 939–944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, J. C. (1986). The description and interpretation of aphasic language disorder. Neuropsychologia 28, 5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A. & Fedio, P. (1983). Word production and comprehension in Alzheimer's disease: the breakdown of semantic knowledge. Brain and Language 19, 124–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayeux, R. & Stern, Y. (1983). Intellectual dysfunction and dementia in Parkinson's disease. In The Dementias: Advances in Neurology, vol. 38 (ed. Meyeux, R. & Rosen, W. G.), pp. 211–227. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Mayeux, R., Stern, Y., Rosen, J. & Benson, D. F. (1983). Is ‘subcortical dementia’ a recognizable clinical entity? Annals of Neurology. 14, 278–283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mesulam, M. M. (1982). Slowly progressive aphasia without generalized dementia. Annals of Neurology. 11, 592–598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, E. (1977). Abnormal Ageing. Wiley: London.Google Scholar
Miller, E. (1984). Verbal fluency as a function of a measure of verbal intelligence and in relation to different types of cerebral pathology. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 23, 53–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, E. & Hague, F. (1975). Some characteristics of verbal behaviour in presenile dementia. Psychological Medicine 5, 255–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neary, D., Snowdon, J. S., Bowen, D. M., Sims, N. R., Mann, D. M. A., Benton, J. S., Northern, B., Yates, P. O. & Davison, A. N. (1986). Neuropsychological syndromes in presenile dementia due to cerebral atrophy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 49, 163–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nebes, R. D., Martin, D. C. & Horn, L. C. (1984). Sparing of semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 93, 321–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, H. E. & McKenna, P. (1975). The use of current reading ability in the assessment of dementia. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 14, 259–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, H. E. & O'Connell, A. (1978) Dementia: the estimation of premorbid intelligence levels using the New Adult Reading Test. Cortex 14, 234–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newton, R. D. (1948). The identity of Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia and their relationship to senility. Journal of Mental Science 94, 225–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ober, B. A., Dronkers, N. F., Koss, E., Delis, D. C & Friedland, R. P. (1986). Retrieval from semantic memory in Alzheimer type dementia. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 8, 75–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Obler, L. (1981). Review: Le langage des déments. By L. Irigaray, 1973. Brain and Language 12, 375–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obler, L. K. (1983). Language and brain dysfunction in dementia. In Language Functions and Brain Organization. (ed. Segalowitz, S. J.), pp. 267–282. Academic Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obler, L. K. & Albert, M. L. (1981). Language in the elderly aphasic and in the dementing patient. In Acquired Aphasia (ed. Sarno, M. T.), pp. 385–398. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Oldfield, R. C. & Wingfield, A. (1965). Response latencies in naming objects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 17, 273–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pogacar, S. & Williams, R. S. (1984). Alzheimer's disease presenting as slowly progressive aphasia. Rhode Island Medical Journal 67, 181–185.Google ScholarPubMed
Rochford, G. (1971). A study of naming errors in dysphasic and in demented patients. Neuropsychologia 9, 437–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, W. G. (1980). Verbal fluency in aging and dementia. Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology 2, 135–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, W. G. (1983). Neuropsychological investigation of memory, visuoconstructional, visuoperceptual and language abilities in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. In The Dementias (ed. Mayeux, R. and Rosen, W. G.), pp. 65–73. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Ruddle, H. V. & Bradshaw, C. M. (1982). On the estimation of premorbid intellectual functioning: validation of Nelson & McKenna's formula, and some new normative data. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 21, 159–165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santo Pietro, M. J. & Goldfarb, R. (1985). Characteristic patterns of word association responses in institutionalized elderly with and without senile dementia. Brain and Language 26, 230–243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlotterer, G., Moscovitch, M. & Crapper-McLachlan, D. (1984). Visual processing deficits as assessed by spatial frequency contrast sensitivity and backward masking in normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease. Brain 107, 309–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, M. F., Marin, O. S. M. & Saffran, E. M. (1979). Dissociations of language function in dementia: a case study. Brain and Language 7, 277–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seltzer, B. & Sherwin, I. (1983). A comparison of clinical features in early- and late-onset primary degenerative dementia: one entity or two? Archives of Neurology 40, 143–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shuttleworth, E. C. (1984). Atypical presentation of dementia of the Alzheimer type. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 32, 485–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sim, M. & Sussman, I. (1962). Alzheimer's disease: its natural history and differential diagnosis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 135, 489–499.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sjogren, H. (1952). Clinical analysis of Morbus Alzheimer and Morbus Pick. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica Supplement 82, 67–115.Google Scholar
Skelton-Robinson, M. & Jones, S. (1984). Nominal dysphasia and the severity of senile dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 168–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stengel, E. (1964 a). Psychopathology of dementia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 57, 911–914.Google ScholarPubMed
Stengel, E. (1964 b). Speech disorders and mental disorders. In Disorders of Language (ed. DeReuck, A. V. S and O'Connor, M.), pp. 285–292. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Sunderland, T., Tariot, P., Murphy, D. L., Weingartner, H., Meuller, E A. & Cohen, R M. (1985). Scopolamine challenges in Alzheimer's disease. Psychopharmacology 87, 247–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terry, R. D. (1978). Dementia a brief and selective review. Archives of Neurology 33, 1–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terry, R. & Katzman, R. (1983). Senile dementia of the Alzheimer type: defining a disease. In The Neurology of Aging (ed. Katzman, R. and Terry, R. D.), pp. 51–84. F. A. Davis Company: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, B. E. (1982). Plaques, tangles and Alzheimer's disease. Psychological Medicine 12, 449–459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, H S. (1978). Prognosis in dementia and related disorders in the aged. In: Alzheimer's Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders Aging, vol. 7 (ed. Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. and Bick, K. L.), pp. 309–313. Raven Press: New York.Google Scholar
Warrington, E. K. (1975). The selective impairment of semantic memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 27, 635–657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, A. F., Verity, M. A., Rosenschein, S., Fried, I. & Scheibel, A. B. (1982). Pick's disease: a clinical, computed tomographic, and histologic study with golgi impregnation observations. Archives of Neurology 39, 287–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weingartner, H., Kaye, W., Smallberg, S. A., Ebert, M. H., Gillin, J. C. & Sitaram, N. (1981). Memory failure in progressive idiopathic dementia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 90, 187–196.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, E. A. & Kahn, R. L. (1952). Nonaphasic misnaming (paraphasia) in organic brain disease. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry 67, 72–79CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wells, N. E. J. (1979). Dementia in Old Age. Office of Health Economics: London.Google Scholar
Whitaker, H. (1976). A case of the isolation of the language function. In Studies in Neurolinguistics vol. 2 (ed. Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H.), pp. 1–58. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Whitehead, A. (1973). The pattern of WAIS performance in elderly psychiatric patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 12, 435–436CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehouse, P. J. (1986). The concept of subcortical and cortical dementia another look. Annals of Neurology 19, 1–6CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whurr, R. (1974). The Aphasia Screening Test. Published by the author: London.Google Scholar
Wilkins, R. H. & Brody, I. A. (1969). Neurological classics 20 Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Neurology 21, 109–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zangwill, O. L. (1964). Intelligence in aphasia. In Disorders of Language (ed. De Reuck, A. V. S. and O'Connor, M.), pp. 261–284. Churchill: London.Google Scholar