Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T19:12:19.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A predominance of category deficits for living things in Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2007

KEITH R. LAWS ,
JOHN R. CRAWFORD ,
FRANCESCA GNOATO  and
GIUSEPPE SARTORI
KEITH R. LAWS
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom
JOHN R. CRAWFORD
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
FRANCESCA GNOATO
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
GIUSEPPE SARTORI
Affiliation:
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although semantic memory impairment is well documented in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer's type, questions remain as to whether the deficit extends to other forms of dementia and whether it differentially affects different domains of knowledge. We examined category naming on two tasks (picture naming and naming-to-description) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD: n = 11), Lewy body dementia (DLB: n = 11) and healthy elderly matched controls (n = 22). The DLB and AD groups showed significantly worse naming on both tasks, although the AD patients were more impaired than the DLB patients. Like some AD patients, some DLB patients showed evidence of category-specific naming deficits, and strikingly, all 25 significant category dissociations were for living things. The latter finding accords with the preponderance of living deficits previously documented for AD patients, but extends this finding to DLB patients. The implications of this category bias is discussed in relation to relevant models of category specificity. (JINS, 2007, 13, 401–409.)

Keywords

Semantic impairmentCategory specificityModality-specificNamingDementiaDissociation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , May 2007 , pp. 401 - 409
Copyright
© 2007 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ala, T.A., Hughes, L.F., Kyrouac, G.A., Ghobrial, M.W., & Elble, R.J. (2001). Pentagon copying is more impaired in dementia with Lewy bodies than in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 70, 483–488.Google Scholar
Ballmaier, M., O'Brien, J.T., Burton, E.J., Thompson, P.M., Rex, D.E., Narr, K.L., McKeith, I.G., DeLuca, H., & Toga, A.W. (2004). Comparing gray matter loss profiles between dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease using cortical pattern matching: Diagnosis and gender effects. Neuroimage, 23, 325–335.Google Scholar
Braak, H. & Braak, E. (1991). Neuropathological staging of Alzheimer-related changes. Acta Neuropathologica, 82, 239–259.Google Scholar
Braak, H. & Braak, E. (1996). Evolution of neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica Supplementum, 165, 3–12.Google Scholar
Calderon, J., Perry, R.J., Erzinclioglu, S.W., Berrios, G.E., Dening, T.R., & Hodges, J.R. (2001). Perception, attention, and working memory are disproportionately impaired in dementia with Lewy bodies compared with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 70, 157–164.Google Scholar
Campbell, S., Stephens, S., & Ballard, C. (2001). Dementia with Lewy bodies: Clinical features and treatment. Drugs & Ageing, 18, 397–407.Google Scholar
Capitani, E., Barbarotto, R., & Laiacona, M. (2005). Gender differences and the brain representation of semantic categories. Brain and Language, 95, 56–57.Google Scholar
Capitani, E., Laiacona, M., & Barbarotto, R. (1999). Gender affects word retrieval of certain categories in semantic fluency tasks. Cortex, 35, 273–278.Google Scholar
Capitani, E., Laiacona, M., Mahon, B., & Caramazza, A. (2003). What are the facts of semantic category-specific deficits? A critical review of the clinical evidence. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 20, 213–261.Google Scholar
Caramazza, A. & Mahon, B.Z. (2003). The organization of conceptual knowledge: The evidence from category-specific semantic deficits. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 354–361.Google Scholar
Collerton, D., Burn, D., McKeith, I., & O'Brien, J. (2003). Systematic review and meta-analysis show that dementia with Lewy bodies is a visual-perceptual and attentional-executive dementia. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 16, 229–237.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R. & Garthwaite, P.H. (2005a). Testing for suspected impairments and dissociations in single-case studies in neuropsychology: Evaluation of alternatives using Monte Carlo simulations and revised tests for dissociations. Neuropsychology, 19, 318–331.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R. & Garthwaite, P.H. (2005b). Evaluation of criteria for classical dissociations in single-case studies by Monte Carlo simulation. Neuropsychology, 19, 664–678.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R., Garthwaite, P.H., Azzalini, A., Howell, D.C., & Laws, K.R. (2006). Testing for a deficit in single-case studies: Effects of departures from normality. Neuropsychologia, 44, 666–677.Google Scholar
Crawford, J.R. & Howell, D.C. (1998). Comparing an individual's test score against norms derived from small samples. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 12, 482–486.Google Scholar
D'Agostino, R.B., Belanger, A., & D'Agostino, R.B. (1990). A suggestion for using powerful and informative tests of normality. The American Statistician, 44, 316–321.Google Scholar
Daum, I., Riesch, G., Sartori, G., & Birbaumer, N. (1996). Semantic memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 18, 648–665.Google Scholar
Ferman, T.J., Smith, G.E., Boeve, B.F., Graff-Radford, N.R., Lucas, J.A., Knopman, D.S., Petersen, R.C., Ivnik, R.J., Wszolek, Z., Uitti, R., & Dickson, D.W. (2006). Neuropsychological differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies from normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 20, 623–636.Google Scholar
Folstein, M.F., Folstein, S.E., & McHugh, P.R. (1975). “Mini-mental state”. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.Google Scholar
Funnell, E. & Sheridan, J. (1992). Categories of knowledge: Unfamiliar aspects of living and nonliving things. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 9, 135–153.Google Scholar
Gainotti, G. (2005). The influence of gender and lesion location on naming disorders for animals, plants and artefacts. Neuropsychologia, 43, 1633–1644.Google Scholar
Gainotti, G., Daniele, A., Nocentini, U., & Silveri, M.C. (1989). The nature of lexical semantic impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 4, 449–460.Google Scholar
Galasko, D., Katzman, R., Salmon, D.P., & Hansen, L. (1996). Clinical and neuropathological findings in Lewy body dementias. Brain and Cognition, 31, 166–175.Google Scholar
Garrard, P., Patterson, K., Watson, P.C, & Hodges, J.R. (1998). Category specific semantic loss in dementia of Alzheimer's type. Functional-anatomical correlations from cross-sectional analyses. Brain, 121, 633–646.Google Scholar
Garthwaite, P.H. & Crawford, J.R. (2004). The distribution of the difference between two t-variates. Biometrika, 91, 987–994.Google Scholar
Gnanalingham, K.K., Byrne, E.J., Thornton, A., Sambrook, M.A., & Bannister, P. (1997). Motor and cognitive function in Lewy body dementia: Comparison with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 62, 243–252.Google Scholar
Gonnerman, L.M., Andersen, E.S., Devlin, J.T., Kempler, D., & Seidenberg, M.S. (1997). Double dissociation of semantic categories in Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 57, 254–279.Google Scholar
Hansen, L., Salmon, D., Galasko, D., Masliah, E., Katzman, R., DeTeresa, R., Thal, L., Pay, M.M., Hofstetter, R., Klauber, M., Rice, V., Butters, N., & Alford, M. (1990). The Lewy body variant of Alzheimer's disease: A clinical and pathological entity. Neurology, 40, 1–8.Google Scholar
Hodges, J., Salmon, D.P., & Butters, N. (1992). Semantic memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease: Failure of access or degraded knowledge? Neuropsychologia, 30, 301–314.Google Scholar
Ishii, K., Yamaji, S., Kitagaki, H., Imamura, T., Hirono, N., & Mori, E. (1999). Regional cerebral blood flow difference between dementia with Lewy bodies and AD. Neurology, 53, 413–416.Google Scholar
Johnson, D.K., Morris, J.C., & Galvin, J.E. (2005). Verbal and visuospatial deficits in dementia with Lewy bodies. Neurology, 65, 1232–1238.Google Scholar
Kraybill, M.L., Larson, E.B., Tsuang, D.W., Teri, L., McCormick, W.C., Bowen, J.D., Kukull, W.A., Leverenz, J.B., & Cherrier, M.M. (2005). Cognitive differences in dementia patients with autopsy-verified AD, Lewy body pathology, or both. Neurology, 64, 2069–2073.Google Scholar
Laiacona, M., Barbarotto, R., & Capitani, E. (1998). Semantic category dissociations in naming: Is there a gender effect in Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia, 36, 407–419.Google Scholar
Laiacona, M., Barbarotto, R., & Capitani, E. (2006). Human evolution and the brain representation of semantic knowledge: Is there a role for sex differences? Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 158–168.Google Scholar
Lambon Ralph, M.A., Howard, D., Nightingale, G., & Ellis, A.W. (1998). Are living and non-living category-specific deficits causally linked to impaired perceptual or associative knowledge? Evidence from a category-specific double dissociation. Neurocase, 4, 311–338.Google Scholar
Lambon Ralph, M.A., Powell, J., Howard, D., Whitworth, A.B., Garrard, P., & Hodges, J.R. (2001). Semantic memory is impaired in both dementia with Lewy bodies and dementia of Alzheimer's type: A comparative neuropsychological study and literature review. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 70, 149–156.Google Scholar
Laws, K.R. (1999). Gender affects naming latencies for living and nonliving things: Implications for familiarity. Cortex, 35, 729–733.Google Scholar
Laws, K.R. (2000). Category-specific naming errors in normal subjects: The influence of evolution and experience. Brain and Language, 75, 123–133.Google Scholar
Laws, K.R. (2005). Illusions of normality: A methodological critique of category-specific naming. Cortex, 41, 842–851.Google Scholar
Laws, K.R., Gale, T.M., Leeson, V.C., & Crawford, J.R. (2005). When is category specific in Alzheimer's disease? Cortex, 41, 452–463.Google Scholar
Laws, K.R. & Sartori, G. (2005). Category deficits and paradoxical dissociations in Alzheimer's disease and Herpes Simplex Encephalitis. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 1453–1459.Google Scholar
Lobotesis, K., Fenwick, J.D., Phipps, A., Ryman, A., Swann, A., Ballard, C., McKeith, I.G., & O'Brien, J.T. (2001). Occipital hypoperfusion on SPECT in dementia with Lewy bodies but not AD. Neurology, 56, 643–649.Google Scholar
McKeith, I.G., Galasko, D., Wilcock, G.K., & Byrne, J.E. (1995). Lewy Body dementia–Diagnosis and treatment. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 709–717.Google Scholar
McKeith, I., Mintzer, J., Aarsland, D., Burn, D., Chiu, H., Cohen-Mansfield, J., Dickson, D., Dubois, B., Duda, J.E., Feldman, H., Gauthier, S., Halliday, G., Lawlor, B., Lippa, C., Lopez, O.L., Carlos Machado, J., O'Brien, J., Playfer, J., & Reid, W., International Psychogeriatric Association Expert Meeting on DLB. (2004). Dementia with Lewy bodies. Lancet Neurology, 3, 19–28.Google Scholar
McKenzie, J.E., Edwards, R.J., Gentleman, S.M., Ince, P.G., Perry, R.H., Royston, M.C., & Roberts, G.W. (1996). A quantitative comparison of plaque types in Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia of the Lewy body type. Acta Neuropathologica, 91, 526–529.Google Scholar
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D., & Stadlan, E.M. (1984). Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA work group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease. Neurology, 34, 939–944.Google Scholar
Moss, H.E., Tyler, L.K., Durrant-Peatfield, M., & Bunn, E.M. (1998). ‘Two eyes of a see-through’: Impaired and intact semantic knowledge in a case of selective deficit for living things. Neurocase, 4, 291–310.Google Scholar
Preobrazhenskaya, I.S., Mkhitaryan, É.A., & Yakhno, N.N. (2006). Comparative analysis of cognitive impairments in Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology, 36, 1–6.Google Scholar
Salmon, D.P., Galasko, D., Hansen, L.A., Masliah, E., Butters, N., Thal, L.J., & Katzman, R. (1996). Neuropsychological deficits associated with diffuse Lewy body disease. Brain and Cognition, 31, 148–165.Google Scholar
Sartori, G., Colombo, L., Vallar, G., Rusconi, M.L., & Pinarello, A. (1997). T.I.B. Test di intelligenza breve. Inserto del Giornale dell'Ordine Nazionale degli Psicologi.
Sartori, G., Job, R., & Zago, S. (2002). A case of domain-specific semantic deficits. In E.M.E. Forde & G.W. Humphreys (Eds.), Category specificity in brain and mind (pp. 25–49). Hove, Sussex: Psychology Press.
Shimomura, T., Mori, E., Yamashita, H., Imamura, T., Hirono, N., Hashimoto, M., Tanimukai, S., Kazui, H., & Hanihara, T. (1998). Cognitive loss in dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Neurology, 55, 1547–1552.Google Scholar
Silveri, M.C., Daniele, A., Giustolisi, L., & Gainotti, G. (1991). Dissociation between knowledge of living and nonliving things in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Neurology, 41, 545–546.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, J.G. & Vanderwart, M. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Learning and Memory, 6, 174–215.Google Scholar
Warrington, E.K. & McCarthy, R.A. (1987). Categories of knowledge. Further fractionations and an attempted integration. Brain, 110, 1273–1296.Google Scholar
Warrington, E.K. & Shallice, T. (1984). Category specific semantic impairments. Brain, 107, 829–854.Google Scholar
Whatmough, C., Chertkow, H., Murtha, S., Templeman, D., Babins, L., & Kelner, N. (2003). The semantic category effect increases with worsening anomia in Alzheimer's type dementia. Brain and Language, 84, 134–147.Google Scholar