Speaker-Listener Coupling and Brain Dynamics During Naturalistic Verbal Communication in Alzheimer's Disease

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Project Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive and severely debilitating disease that negatively affects cognitive and memory function and is linked to increased disability in everyday functioning and risk of mortality. Language function is a crucial area of impairment for AD. Individuals with AD show a wide range of language difficulties which are thought to lead to social isolation in affected individuals, negatively affecting quality of life and well-being for patients, caregivers, and family members. The major goal of our Administrative Supplement is to advance our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying speech comprehension deficits in patients with AD. To accomplish this goal, we will leverage fMRI task paradigms and neurocognitive models we have recently developed as part of the parent project and ongoing work in collaboration with the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). We now propose to extend our original aims with two new Aims designed to build on these findings by examining anticipatory and integrative components of speech processing, with a focus on aberrant organization of the default mode network, in patients with early AD. Critically, to achieve this goal, we will apply the novel experimental and analytic approaches developed by the parent project at Stanford to AD data collected as part of the proposed supplement and resources provided by the Stanford ADRC (P30AG066515) Clinical Core and Imaging Core. Specifically, we will investigate (1) speaker-listener brain coupling during natural speech communication and its relation to narrative comprehension and functional communication abilities in AD and age-matched healthy controls; and (2) the integrity of temporal integration windows underlying naturalistic verbal communication and its relation to narrative comprehension and functional communication abilities in AD and age-matched healthy controls. Our studies will provide critical information regarding the neurobiological origins of communication impairments in AD and will inform therapies and strategies aimed at improving language and social function in dementia.