Comparison of language and narrative features of individuals among amnestic mild cognitive impairment and healthy adults

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundMild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a stage between normal aging and dementia. Even though individuals have some decline in cognition due to normal aging, preserved daily life functioning skills is the main distinction between dementia and MCI. Individuals with MCI experience mild impairments in memory, language and judgement.MCI is classified in two subtypes: one is amnestic MCI which is characterized by memory impairment, the other one is non‐amnestic MCI in which other cognitive domains are impaired. Individuals with amnestic MCI (aMCI) are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD). The purpose of this study is to determine the language and narration skills of individuals with aMCI and to compare their scores with healthy participants.MethodFor this purpose, the Test Your Memory – Turkish Version (TYM‐TR), the Turkish Picture Naming Test (T‐RAT), the Aphasia Language Assessment Test (ADD) Repetition Subtest, the Turkish Nonword Repetition Test (TAST) were administered to 60 participants between the ages of 60‐85, 30 with aMCI and 30 healthy individuals. Pyramid and Palm Trees Test (PPTT) and the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN‐TR) Dog Story Retelling tasks were also administered.ResultAfter the distribution of the data was examined, those with normal distribution were compared between the groups with independent samples T test and the data that did not show a normal distribution were calculated using non‐parametric Mann Whitney‐U. As a result of the statistical analysis, it was determined that nonword repetition differed significantly between the groups. As for macrostructures, it was determined that there was a difference between the groups in terms of story structure and comprehension. As for the other parameters, even though the average of healthy individuals was higher, no significant difference was found between the groups.ConclusionThis study is the first on the language and narrative skills of the participants with aMCI in Turkish, and it is thought that it will shed light on the language skills of individuals with aMCI during the neurodegeneration process. Determining the changes in language skills is very important in setting goals for Language and Speech Therapy.