Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease

Norimasa Fujimoto,1 Hikaru Nakamura,2 Tetsuya Tsuda,3 Yosuke Wakutani,4 Takeo Takao4 1Department of Rehabilitation, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan; 2Department of Health and Welfare Science, Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama, Japan; 3Department of Communication Scie...

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Autores principales:	Fujimoto N, Nakamura H, Tsuda T, Wakutani Y, Takao T
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Dove Medical Press 2019
Materias:	nonliteral language simile multiple-choice pragmatics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a3613f1e42df4dc896813efb396e4884
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a3613f1e42df4dc896813efb396e48842021-12-02T02:22:43ZImpaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease1178-2021https://doaj.org/article/a3613f1e42df4dc896813efb396e48842019-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.dovepress.com/impaired-comprehension-of-metaphorical-expressions-in-very-mild-alzhei-peer-reviewed-article-NDThttps://doaj.org/toc/1178-2021Norimasa Fujimoto,1 Hikaru Nakamura,2 Tetsuya Tsuda,3 Yosuke Wakutani,4 Takeo Takao4 1Department of Rehabilitation, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan; 2Department of Health and Welfare Science, Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama, Japan; 3Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Mihara, Hiroshima, Japan; 4Department of Neurology, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan Background: Brain-damaged patients often have difficulty understanding non-literal language. However, whether patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have comprehension deficits of metaphorical expressions, in contrast with non-metaphorical (literal) expressions, remains unclear.Patients and methods: The subjects were 40 AD patients; 20 had mild AD (17–23 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]), and 20 had very mild AD (≥24 points). Twenty normal elderly controls were also enrolled as a control group. Thirty sentences that contained novel similes (Items) were prepared. For each Item, four explanatory choices, consisting of one correct response and three foils, were provided. The participants were asked to choose the written statement that best represented the Item’s meaning. In addition, all the subjects completed the Token Test.Results: The patients with mild AD had significantly lower scores than the normal controls on both the simile comprehension test and the Token Test. However, the patients with very mild AD exhibited significantly lower scores on the simile comprehension test, but not on the Token Test. The distributions of error types for the simile test differed between the mild AD group and the other groups. The mild AD patients made more errors that were “far” from the correct responses.Conclusion: Patients with AD are more likely to have comprehension deficits of metaphorical expressions than comprehension deficits of non-metaphorical expressions. Pragmatic language dysfunction may precede formal language dysfunction during the progression of AD.Keywords: non-literal language, simile, multiple-choice, pragmaticsFujimoto NNakamura HTsuda TWakutani YTakao TDove Medical Pressarticlenonliteral languagesimilemultiple-choicepragmaticsNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. NeuropsychiatryRC321-571Neurology. Diseases of the nervous systemRC346-429ENNeuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, Vol Volume 15, Pp 713-720 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	nonliteral language simile multiple-choice pragmatics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429
spellingShingle	nonliteral language simile multiple-choice pragmatics Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system RC346-429 Fujimoto N Nakamura H Tsuda T Wakutani Y Takao T Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
description	Norimasa Fujimoto,1 Hikaru Nakamura,2 Tetsuya Tsuda,3 Yosuke Wakutani,4 Takeo Takao4 1Department of Rehabilitation, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan; 2Department of Health and Welfare Science, Okayama Prefectural University, Soja, Okayama, Japan; 3Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Mihara, Hiroshima, Japan; 4Department of Neurology, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan Background: Brain-damaged patients often have difficulty understanding non-literal language. However, whether patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have comprehension deficits of metaphorical expressions, in contrast with non-metaphorical (literal) expressions, remains unclear.Patients and methods: The subjects were 40 AD patients; 20 had mild AD (17–23 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]), and 20 had very mild AD (≥24 points). Twenty normal elderly controls were also enrolled as a control group. Thirty sentences that contained novel similes (Items) were prepared. For each Item, four explanatory choices, consisting of one correct response and three foils, were provided. The participants were asked to choose the written statement that best represented the Item’s meaning. In addition, all the subjects completed the Token Test.Results: The patients with mild AD had significantly lower scores than the normal controls on both the simile comprehension test and the Token Test. However, the patients with very mild AD exhibited significantly lower scores on the simile comprehension test, but not on the Token Test. The distributions of error types for the simile test differed between the mild AD group and the other groups. The mild AD patients made more errors that were “far” from the correct responses.Conclusion: Patients with AD are more likely to have comprehension deficits of metaphorical expressions than comprehension deficits of non-metaphorical expressions. Pragmatic language dysfunction may precede formal language dysfunction during the progression of AD.Keywords: non-literal language, simile, multiple-choice, pragmatics
format	article
author	Fujimoto N Nakamura H Tsuda T Wakutani Y Takao T
author_facet	Fujimoto N Nakamura H Tsuda T Wakutani Y Takao T
author_sort	Fujimoto N
title	Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
title_short	Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
title_full	Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
title_fullStr	Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
title_full_unstemmed	Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease
title_sort	impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild alzheimer’s disease
publisher	Dove Medical Press
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/a3613f1e42df4dc896813efb396e4884
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Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease

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Impaired comprehension of metaphorical expressions in very mild Alzheimer’s disease