1,720,997 research outputs found
The Iris Murdoch text analysis project and its importance to the study of authorship and Alzheimer's disease
No full textCognitive archaeology: uses, methods, and results
No full textThe earliest stages of cognitive decline in cases of slowly progressive dementia are difficult to pinpoint, yet detection of the preclinical period of the illness is likely to be of significant importance to understanding
Alzheimer’s disease and other slowly progressive dementias at both clinical and biological levels. A number of authors have used retrospective analysis to describe preclinical linguistic decline in written texts and spoken language samples. This paper reviews the methods available for classifying and comparing such samples, and presents some exploratory analyses of historical texts derived from verbatim records of preclinical spoken activity. Change in the nature of the language used by Harold Wilson (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1964-970 and 1974-976) is quantified in the light of a later diagnosis of probable Alzheimer’s disease and historical uncertainties about his final months in office
From hindsight to insight: retrospective analysis of language written by a renowned Alzheimer's patient
No full textAmong the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease is a gradual decline of language skills. Longitudinal studies are a useful way to study the development of linguistic abilities in the course of a person's lifetime; subjects producing sufficient language output to allow a study spanning decades are rare but can provide valuable information. In this study, we analysed lexical diversity in three books by Gerard Reve (1923-2006), an acclaimed Dutch literary author who wrote his last novel not long before diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The data show a clear-cut decline in lexical diversity, coinciding with a reported 'forgetfulness' starting halfway during the creative process of writing this last novel. The findings match those of Garrard et al. (2005) in their study of Iris Murdoch
Abnormal discourse in semantic dementia: a data driven approach
No full textStructural and content-related deficits characterise connected discourse produced by patients with semantic dementia (SD). We used a principal components analysis to identify and characterise the sources of variation in word usage during picture description by healthy controls and SD patients. It was hypothesized that this data-driven approach would yield insights into the relationship between semantic degradation and any higher level structural deficits.
Transcripts of Cookie Theft picture descriptions provided by 21 patients with SD and 21 controls were used to generate frequency tables of all word types (n=557) across participants. Frequency values of words with ?10 occurrences (n=81) were entered into a principal components analysis. Values on the emergent dimensions were compared with performance on tests of single word meaning.
The first principal component accounted for 59% of the variance, and the second for a further 10%. Patient and control transcripts showed good separation within the resulting space. Factor loading scores indicated that control performance was characterized by function (factor 1) and content (factor 2) word usage, while patients showed a greater tendency to use pronouns, deictic and generic words, and the phrase “I do not know”. Tests of knowledge of single word meaning correlated with factor 1 but not with factor 2.
Differences in word usage alone can differentiate passages of connected speech produced by patients with SD from controls using a rapid, automated, data driven algorithm. The distinction between the two groups reflects seemingly independent differences in both structure and lexical conten
A feasibility study of speech recording using a contact microphone in patients with possible or probable Alzheimer’s Disease, to detect and quantify repetitions in a natural setting
No full textThe treatment of object naming, definition and object use in semantic dementia: the effectiveness of errorless learning
No full textBackground: Patients with semantic dementia are impaired in both object naming and, to a lesser extent, in object use. To date there have been relatively few studies examining the relearning of object names, and only one examining the relearning of object use. No study has examined relearning object naming, definition, and use simultaneously.Aims: To explore the relatedness of object naming, definition, and object use in semantic dementia; to explore whether or not therapy is effective; and to explore the effectiveness of errorless learning.Methods & Procedures: Two patients with mild to moderate semantic dementia and two matched control participants were tested in naming, defining, and demonstrating the use of 33 household objects. The quality of the definitions was rated as poor, adequate, or good by three independent raters. Three components of object use were examined: hold,
orientation, and movement. The assessment was repeated with the patients following 3 weeks of therapy, and 1 month after completion of therapy. For the therapy, objects were divided into individual trained and untrained sets based on familiarity and
performance at initial assessment. Patients received therapy sessions twice weekly, and engaged in independent practice. During the therapy sessions, the researcher modeled the name, definition, and use of each item, which the patient then repeated. In the independent practice each patient watched a DVD in which she named and defined the object and used it correctly.Outcomes & Results: Patients were severely impaired on object naming and definition, but less so on object use. Both patients showed some improvement as a result of therapy, which was maintained at follow-up in one case.Conclusions: The results show that relearning in semantic dementia is possible. Factors affecting the results and the interaction between lexical and conceptual impairments are discussed. An unexpected finding of the study was that patients performed better in verb production both in the preliminary tests and in object definition
The acute mania of King George III: A computational linguistic analysis
No full textWe used a computational linguistic approach, exploiting machine learning techniques, to examine the letters written by King George III during mentally healthy and apparently mentally ill periods of his life. The aims of the study were: first, to establish the existence of alterations in the King’s written language at the onset of his first manic episode; and secondly to identify salient sources of variation contributing to the changes. Effects on language were sought in two control conditions (politically stressful vs. politically tranquil periods and seasonal variation). We found clear differences in the letter corpus, across a range of different features, in association with the onset of mental derangement, which were driven by a combination of linguistic and information theory features that appeared to be specific to the contrast between acute mania and mental stability. The paucity of existing data relevant to changes in written language in the presence of acute mania suggests that lexical, syntactic and stylometric descriptions of written discourse produced by a cohort of patients with a diagnosis of acute mania will be necessary to support the diagnosis independently and to look for other periods of mental illness of the course of the King’s life, and in other historically significant figures with similarly large archives of handwritten documents
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