Word and phrase duration in Mandarin-speaking individuals with Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by irreversible cognitive deterioration, often manifesting in pathological speech patterns [Baker et al., Clin. Linguist. Phon. 21(11–12), 859–867 (2007)]. Previous research has examined temporal and acoustic features of AD patients’ speech, including pitch, volume, and voice quality, showing that these measures can be used to discriminate between people with AD and healthy older adults [Meilan et al., Dement. Geriatr. Cogn. Disord. 37(5–6), 327–334 (2014)]. However, whether word and phrase duration are affected by AD remains unclear. The present study measured word and phrase duration from nine Mandarin-speaking AD patients and nine gender-matched neurotypical controls undertaking picture description and naming tasks. Preliminary results show AD patients exhibited a significant difference (t (1688.1) = −5.88, p < .001) in word duration compared to controls, with shorter word duration in the naming task (t (1088.8) = −8.66, p < .001) and longer in the picture description task (t (484.13) = 2.40, p = 0.017); AD patients also uttered significantly shorter phrases than controls in the picture description task (t (86.01) = −2.17, p = 0.033). The preliminary result suggests that AD may affect word and phrase duration. [Work supported by NIH and NSERC].