Title | Impairment of script comprehension in Lewy body spectrum disorders. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2013 |
Authors | Gross RG, Camp E, McMillan CT, Dreyfuss M, Gunawardena D, Cook PA, Morgan B, Siderowf A, Hurtig HI, Stern MB, Grossman M |
Journal | Brain Lang |
Volume | 125 |
Issue | 3 |
Pagination | 330-43 |
Date Published | 2013 Jun |
ISSN | 1090-2155 |
Keywords | Aged, Brain Mapping, Comprehension, Humans, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Lewy Body Disease, Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
Abstract | A disabling impairment of higher-order language function can be seen in patients with Lewy body spectrum disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We focus on script comprehension in patients with Lewy body spectrum disorders. While scripts unfold sequentially, constituent events are thought to contain an internal organization. Executive dysfunction in patients with Lewy body spectrum disorders may interfere with comprehension of this internal structure. We examined 42 patients (30 non-demented PD and 12 mildly demented PDD/DLB patients) and 12 healthy seniors. We presented 22 scripts (e.g., "going fishing"), each consisting of six events. Pilot data from young controls provided the basis for organizing associated events into clusters and arranging them hierarchically into scripts. We measured accuracy and latency to judge the order of adjacent events in the same cluster versus adjacent events in different clusters. PDD/DLB patients were less accurate in their ordering judgments than PD patients and controls. Healthy seniors and PD patients were significantly faster to judge correctly the order of highly associated within-cluster event pairs relative to less closely associated different-cluster event pairs, while PDD/DLB patients did not consistently distinguish between these event-pair types. This relative insensitivity to the clustered-hierarchical organization of events was related to executive impairment and to frontal atrophy as measured by volumetric MRI. These findings extend prior work on script processing to patients with Lewy body spectrum disorders and highlight the potential impact of frontal/executive dysfunction on the daily lives of affected patients. |
DOI | 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.02.006 |
Alternate Journal | Brain Lang |
PubMed ID | 23566691 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC3940934 |
Grant List | R01 NS044266 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States R01 AG015116 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States T32 NS054575 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States NS44266 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States P01 AG017586 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States AG15116 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States P50 NS053488 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States AG17586 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States NS53488 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States HD060406 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States F32 HD060406 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States T32NS054575 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States |
Submitted by kej2006 on June 6, 2018 - 4:09pm