LANGUAGE IN THE AGING BRAIN

这项建议建立在我们20年来的纵向研究的基础上，并扩展了我们的研究 研究正常衰老和痴呆症患者语言变化的计划。 在我们的整个研究计划中，一个主要的主题是理解 语言功能的变化与非语言功能变化的关系 语言的认知功能。这一主题继续激励着 目前的一系列研究。第二个主题是对一名 可以部分解释词汇的特定概念机制 正常衰老时可见的检索缺陷。这一机制假定了一个年龄- 信息从语义到语义传递的相关缺陷 语义记忆网络中的词汇-语音节点。一个。 核心纵向项目：我们建议调查 词汇提取技能与语言认知和非语言认知 各种因素。我们继续管理广泛的语言和 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 对同一个体进行神经心理认知测试，测试结果达到 之前有四次。我们使用新的数据来测试词汇量是否 提取缺陷可以通过更早的表现来预测。B.语义 阿尔茨海默病知识：这个项目调查的是表现 在AD受试者中，随着时间的推移，使用两种自动语义启动 任务和语义记忆的几种离线测量。我们测试 AD文献中相互矛盾的启动发现是否可能 由性能模式随时间的变化来解释 患有AD的个人。C.工作记忆在语言中的作用 对老年人的理解：我们建议延长我们早期的工作 从探索性角度看句子级语篇的听觉理解 传统的“工作记忆”测验与“工作记忆”测验的关系 语言理解的手段。我们检验了这一假设 与衰老相关的理解成绩的变化反映了 个人工作记忆容量下降。D.音系学 与年龄相关的词汇提取失败的因素：我们扩展 我们对词汇提取缺陷机制的思考 与正常衰老有关。使用图形词干扰 范型与语义相关词或语音相关词 素数时，我们检验了语音素词是否具有易化性。 随着年龄的增长，图片命名任务减少。E.词汇之间的关系 正常衰老中的提取失败和持久力：我们诱导 改良版在正常受试者中的持之以恒行为 一项常见的快速命名任务。我们测试受试者是否有不良症状 在对峙命名任务中的命名成绩会更高 在快速命名任务上的坚持率。

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.