Abstract Details

Title Semantic Network Assessment in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease

Topic Aging, Dementia, and Behavioral Neurology

Presentation(s) P3 - Poster Session 3 (12:00 PM-1:00 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 10-006

Objective To compare the performance of cognitively healthy elders, MCI, and mild AD through the Word-Picture Matching (WPM) and Semantic Associates (SA) tests (quantitative and qualitatively) and its correlation with TMA and Fazekas scores in MCI and AD groups.

Background Derangement in semantic processing is well known to occur in Alzheimer's
disease; also, patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) show impairment in lexical access very early in the course of the condition. Understanding the features of semantic impairment in MCI might shed light on the development of better rehabilitation strategies to maintain patients communicative abilities.

Design/Methods We studied 118 elderly divided into four groups (controls, aMCI, naMCI, and mild AD). We also classified the errors as semantically related and non-related for living and non-living nouns.

Results In the WPM and SA test, there were no significant differences among the groups (p=0.15 and 0.62, respectively). There were also no significant correlations between scores in the semantic tests and neuroimaging indices. Regarding type of errors, "Concrete" responses were the more prevalent in controls (p=0.01), aMCI (p<0.001), AD (p=0.03). MCI made 75% of "Contextual" errors, and AD patients made 75% of "Functional" errors.

Conclusions

Qualitative analysis of semantic errors might be useful in the assessment of the progression of language impairment in the MCI-AD continuum.

Authors/Disclosures
Maria Paula Maziero, MD (UTHEALTH) PRESENTER	Dr. Maziero has nothing to disclose.
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Marcia Radanovic (Rua Oscar Freire)	No disclosure on file

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