Influences of clustering and switching on the verbal fluency performance of patients with Alzheimer's disease
Influences of clustering and switching on the verbal fluency performance of patients with Alzheimer's disease
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DOI：
10.1080/13825589708256652
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发表时间：
1997-12-01
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Winn, P
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beatty, WW;Testa, JA;Winn, P
一些证据表明，在阿尔茨海默病(AD)中，语义记忆的分层组织存在进行性退化。为了验证这一假说，我们研究了语音流畅性和语义流畅性任务上的聚集和转换。对于老年对照组，BASH聚簇和转换与两次流利性测试中产生的正确单词数相关，但聚簇对语义任务的贡献更大。与对照组相比，AD患者在两项流利性测试中产生的正确病房更少，切换更少。与对照组相比，他们的语义簇的平均大小更小，聚类对词汇生成的贡献也更小。痴呆症的严重程度与正确单词和转换的数量有关，而与簇的大小无关。这些结果与各种假说是一致的，这些假说认为AD患者的语义记忆结构是退化的，但没有证据表明这一过程是渐进的。相反，AD患者语言流畅性的渐进性恶化似乎与支配寻找合适的子类别的机制的恶化有更强的相关性。
Several lines of evidence suggest that in Alzheimer's disease (AD) there is a progressive degradation of the hierarchical organization of semantic memory. To evaluate this hypothesis, clustering and switching on phonemic and semantic fluency tasks were studied. For elderly controls, bath clustering and switching were correlated with the numbers of correct words generated on both fluency tests, but the contribution of clustering was greater on the semantic task. Patients with AD generated fewer correct wards and made fewer switches than controls on both fluency tests. The average size of their semantic clusters was smaller and the contribution of clustering to word generation was less than for controls. Severity of dementia was correlated with the numbers of correct words and switches, but not with cluster size. These results are consistent with various hypotheses which maintain that the structure of semantic memory in AD is degraded but provide no evidence that this process is progressive. Instead, progressive worsening of verbal fluency in AD seems to be more strongly associated with the deterioration of mechanisms that govern initiation of search for appropriate subcategories.