TITLE:
Narrativity and Memory Analysis in Alzheimer’s Disease
AUTHORS:
Cyril Hazif-Thomas, Remy Billon, Philippe Thomas
KEYWORDS:
Alzheimer’s Disease, Semiotics, Semantics, Textuality
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.7 No.4,
September
1,
2017
ABSTRACT: Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness with frequency of occurrence increasing with old age. If memory impairment setting progressively is here an element associated upfront, other neurocognitive troubles are also associated, for example, language impairment which can degenerate into aphasia. Aim of the study. To evaluate semantic and textual impairment in AD. Methods. Populations studied concerned 151 AD patients in consultation at Brest University Hospital. Certain sociodemographic data (sex, age, cultural levels) were collected as well as results from neuropsychological tests: (Folstein-MMSE; Dubois’s 5-word test; fluencies, Dubois’ s frontal test battery; Cornell’s scale for depression; Barbizet’s test, “The Lion’s tale”, for textual analysis. Demented patients were composed of 102 females and 49 males of average age 80.3 ± 6.91. All the tests, including the number of items memorized latterly in the Barbizet’s test are impaired all the more by Folstein’s test being altered. The formal fluency on demented patients is less impaired than the semantic lexical fluency test (scored respectively 5.74 ± 1. 09 versus 4.41 ± 2. 19; t = 5.60, p