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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
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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

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