LANGUAGE IN THE AGING BRAIN

这项建议建立在并扩展了我们20年的纵向研究基础上 研究正常衰老和痴呆症中语言变化的项目。 在我们的研究计划中，一个主要的主题是了解 语言功能变化与非语言功能变化的关系 语言认知功能这一主题继续激励着 目前的研究。 第二个主题是对一个 具体的概念机制，可以部分解释词汇 在正常衰老中出现的检索缺陷。 这个机制假定了一个年龄- 信息从语义到语义的传递中的相关缺陷 语义记忆网络中的词汇-语音节点。 A. 核心纵向项目：我们建议调查 词汇检索技能和语言与非语言认知 因素 我们继续管理一个广泛的语言电池， 非语言神经心理认知因素。我们继续 管理大量的语言和非语言 神经心理学认知测试对同一个人进行测试， 四次之前。 我们使用新的数据来测试词汇是否 提取缺陷可以通过早期表现来预测。 B。语义 阿尔茨海默病知识：本项目调查表现 随着时间的推移，在AD受试者中，使用自动语义启动 任务和一些离线的语义记忆的措施。 我们测试 AD文献中相互矛盾的启动结果是否可能 解释为随着时间的推移， 有AD的人。 C.工作记忆在语言中的作用 对老年人的理解：我们建议扩大我们早期的工作 对语篇听觉理解的研究 传统的“工作记忆”测量方法与 语言理解的衡量标准。 我们检验了一个假设， 与衰老相关的理解能力的变化反映了 个人工作记忆能力下降。D.语音 与年龄相关的词汇提取失败的因素：我们扩展了 我们对词汇提取缺陷的机制的思考 与正常衰老有关。 使用图像词干扰 范式和语义相关或语音相关的词 启动，我们测试是否促进从语音启动在一个 图片命名任务随着年龄的增长而减少。 E.词汇之间的关系 正常老化中的检索失败和持续性：我们诱导 正常人的持续行为 一个常见的快速命名任务。 我们测试了是否受试者与穷人 在对抗命名任务中， 在快速命名任务中的持续率。

This proposal builds upon and expands our 20 year longitudinal research program investigating languaged changes in normal aging and dementia. Throughout our research program, a major theme has been to understand the relation between changes in language function and changes in non- language cognitive functions. That theme continues to motivate the current set of studies. A second theme has been the investigation of a specific conceptual mechanism that may partly explain the lexical retrieval deficit seen in normal aging. This mechanism posits an age- related deficit in the transmission of information from semantic to lexical-phonological nodes within the semantic memory network. A. Core Longitudinal Project: We propose to investigate relations between lexical retriecal skills and both linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive factors. We continue to administer an extensive battery of language and non-language neuropsychological cognitive factors.We continue to administer an extensive battery of language and non-language neuropsychological cognitive tests to the same individuals tested up to four times previously. We use the new data to test whether lexical retrieval deficits can be predicated by earlier performance. B. Semantic Knowledge in Alzheimer's disease: This project investigates performance over time in subjects with AD, using both an automatic semantic priming task and several off-line measures of semantic memory. We test whether contradictory priming findings in the AD literature may be explained by changes in patterns of performance over time within individuals who have AD. C. Role of Working Memory in Language Comprehension of the Elderly: We propose to extend our earlier work on the auditory comprehension of sentence-level discourse by exploring the relation between traditional measures of "working memory" and meaures of linguistic comprehension. We test the hypothesis that changes in comprehension performance associated with aging reflect declines in individual working memory capacity. D. Phonological Factors in Lexical Retrieval Failure Associated with Aging: We expand our consideration of mechanisms underlying the lexical retriecal deficits associated with normal aging. Using a picure-word interference paradigm and either semantically-related or phonologically - related word primes, we test the whether facilitation from phonological primes in a picture naming task is reduced in aging. E. Relation Between Lexical retrieval Failure and Perseveration in Normal Aging: We induce perseverative behaviors in normal subjects by using a modified version of a common speeded naming task. We test whether subjects with poor naming performance on a confrontation naming task will have higher rates of perseveration on the speeded naming task.