Environmental sound naming in patients with early stages of Alzheimer’s disease

• Main Authors: CHANG, FENG-JUI, 張峰瑞
• Other Authors: LU, LU
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/39sd67

碩士 === 國立臺北護理健康大學 === 語言治療與聽力研究所 === 107 === Assessment and diagnosis of early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been increasingly noticed. However, current linguistic evaluation for early AD is not sensitive enough nor efficient for clinical use. Environmental sounds (i.e., dog barks, doorbell rings) have been known to activate semantic system and have been considered as potential stimulants for naming test. Here, we compare the performance of environmental sound naming (SN) between patients of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), very mild / mild Alzheimer’s dementia, and normal elderly. Our aim is to see if there is difference between normal elderly and patients with early AD on the designed SN test and to investigate the possible factors influencing the performance of individuals. Results shows performance of SN was significantly different between normal elderly and early AD. Semantic deficit was manifest in patients with early stages of AD according to the error types analysis. The performance of SN test was also significantly correlated with global cognitive states of the subjects. Overall, the designed SN test is a potential task for differentiating patients with early stages of AD and normal elderly. The current study provides some positive results for further investigation on clinical use of SN test.