Modeling Abnormal Priming in Alzheimer's Patients with a Free Association Network
Modeling Abnormal Priming in Alzheimer's Patients with a Free Association Network
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0022651
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发表时间：
2011-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Arenas, Alex
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Borge-Holthoefer, Javier;Moreno, Yamir;Arenas, Alex
阿尔茨海默氏症即使在早期阶段也无法挽回地改变单词搜索和检索过程的熟练程度。在特定的语言任务中，这种干扰有时是自相矛盾的，例如语义启动。在这里，我们将重点放在阿尔茨海默病患者过度启动的显著副作用上，这在很长一段时间里已经在文献中得到了充分的证实。以往的研究已经证明，现代网络理论可以成为洞察认知现象的有力补充工具。在这里，我们首先表明，网络建模是一种适当的方法来解释正常受试者的语义启动。然后我们转向退化认知中的启动：在语义网络结构的渐进性退化的范围内，超启动很容易被理解。我们将我们的模拟结果与之前在疾病患者中的经验观察进行了比较，发现了定性的一致。本文提出的网络方法可以用来适应当前关于认知受损的理论，并有助于更好地理解健康和疾病患者的词汇组织。
Alzheimer's Disease irremediably alters the proficiency of word search and retrieval processes even at its early stages. Such disruption can sometimes be paradoxical in specific language tasks, for example semantic priming. Here we focus in the striking side-effect of hyperpriming in Alzheimer's Disease patients, which has been well-established in the literature for a long time. Previous studies have evidenced that modern network theory can become a powerful complementary tool to gain insight in cognitive phenomena. Here, we first show that network modeling is an appropriate approach to account for semantic priming in normal subjects. Then we turn to priming in degraded cognition: hyperpriming can be readily understood in the scope of a progressive degradation of the semantic network structure. We compare our simulation results with previous empirical observations in diseased patients finding a qualitative agreement. The network approach presented here can be used to accommodate current theories about impaired cognition, and towards a better understanding of lexical organization in healthy and diseased patients.