Distinctive Semantic Feature Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Distinctive Semantic Feature Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease Kieran J. Flanagan1*, David A. Copland1, 2, Helen J. Chenery3, Gerard J. Byrne4 and Anthony J. Angwin1 1 University of Queensland, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Australia 2 University of Queensland, Centre for Clinical Research, Australia 3 University of Queensland, Centre for Clinical Research, Australia 4 University of Queensland, School of Medicine, Australia The degraded storage account is frequently used to explain anomia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This account asserts that anomia in AD is caused by the progressive loss of semantic features with distinctive semantic features more vulnerable to loss than non-distinctive features. Supporting studies have been criticized for their over reliance on verbal tasks with high cognitive demands which may confound their findings. The current study used a novel version of the yes-no recognition task that controlled for the cognitive demands of the task and used picture stimuli to compare the processing of distinctive and non-distinctive features in participants with AD and healthy controls. Eleven participants with AD and 24 control participants matched for age, sex and education were recruited. Participants were required to learn and series of pictures in a study phase and indicate which pictures they had seen before from a larger set of pictures in a test phase. Pictures in the test phase were either identical, semantically related or unrelated to items in the study phase or altered by a distinctive or non-distinctive semantic feature. Evidence was found to support the differential processing of distinctive and non-distinctive features in AD with the accuracy of performance of participants with AD decreasing relative to control participants when distinctive features but not non-distinctive features were manipulated between study and test phased. These findings support the degraded storage hypothesis of anomia in AD and are discussed with respect to current models of semantic representation. Acknowledgements Alison Argo, Elizabeth Arnold, Claire Flanagan, Michael Humphreys. Copland was supported by a NHMRC Clinical Career Development Award and an ARC Future Fellowship. Keywords: semantic features, Alzheimer’s disease, Degraded access, Degraded storage, memory and learning task Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Language Citation: Flanagan KJ, Copland DA, Chenery HJ, Byrne GJ and Angwin AJ (2012). Distinctive Semantic Feature Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00199 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Oct 2012; Published Online: 27 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Mr. Kieran J Flanagan, University of Queensland, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia, k.flanagan@uq.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Kieran J Flanagan David A Copland Helen J Chenery Gerard J Byrne Anthony J Angwin Google Kieran J Flanagan David A Copland Helen J Chenery Gerard J Byrne Anthony J Angwin Google Scholar Kieran J Flanagan David A Copland Helen J Chenery Gerard J Byrne Anthony J Angwin PubMed Kieran J Flanagan David A Copland Helen J Chenery Gerard J Byrne Anthony J Angwin Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.