정상 노년층, 경도인지장애, 알츠하이머성 치매의 언어 산출 특성

Abstract

Background: As aging influences the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it becomes more important to effectively differentiate preclinical from clinical stages of AD. The purpose of this study was to review the literature on characteristics of expressive language in normal aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD in light of lexicology/semantics, morphology/syntactics, phonology/articulation, and pragmatics. Methods: A comprehensive literature search identified numerous studies on expressive language in three groups, and we analyzed them according to each domain. Results: The results indicated that the lexicology/ semantics in both spontaneous speech and naming tasks could aid on the differential diagnosis of three groups. In contrast, there were some controversial views regarding morphology/syntactics and phonology/articulation. Most studies on pragmatics were based on a few cases. Conclusions: These results provide the diagnostic bases that may be used in evaluation and treatment of MCI and AD despite several controversial viewpoints. They also imply that, it is necessary to consider diverse aspects such as diagnostic tools of lexicology/semantics, discourse, and functional communication.