Speech production in aging and dementia: The umbrella project
Our group has since long pursued to understand the processes underlying speech changes in aging. An important phenomenon to address at this respect is the slowing of word generation vis-à-vis the decline in memory capacity or semantic deterioration. We conduct a careful analysis of the content, accuracy and timing of speech to better understand changes in speech production of healthy older adults and older patients at the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We use neuropsychological verbal tasks for this purpose, and we measure psychomotor elements on its execution, including reaction times, word articulation and voice intensity. Through this approach, we have addressed the effects of task difficulty, neural correlates of word generation as well as moderating variables of brain functioning during verbal execution. More recently, we have applied time course analyses and machine learning techniques to semantic errors characterizing the initial stages of AD.
In the umbrella project, we seek to study whether psychomotor and cognitive changes in healthy older adults and MCI/AD patients occur separately or in parallel at different stages of the aging continuum. The objective in the longitudinal evaluation is to compare progression trajectories of patients and controls at baseline and about 4.5 years after initial testing.
Some key publications are:
- Y. Itaguchi; S.A. Castro-Chavira.; K. Waterloo; Johnsen, S.H. & C. Rodríguez-Aranda (2022) Evaluation of error production in animal fluency and its relationship to frontal tracts in normal aging and mild Alzheimer's disease: A combined LDA and time-course analysis investigation. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience,| https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.710938
- C. Rodríguez-Aranda, S.A.Castro-Chavira, R. Espenes, F.A. Barrios, K. Waterloo, and T.R. Vangberg (2020). The role of moderating variables on BOLD fMRI response during semantic verbal fluency and finger tapping in active and educated healthy seniors. Frontiers in Human Neurosciences, 14:203. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00203
- C. Rodríguez-Aranda, K. Waterloo, S.H., Johnsen, P. Eldevik, S. Sparr, G.C. Wikran, M. Herder, and T. R.,Vangberg (2016). Neuroanatomical correlates of verbal fluency processing in early Alzheimer’s disease and normal aging. Brain and Language, 155-156, 24-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2016.03.001
Members:
Financial/grant information:
Helse Nord, Norwegian Health Association & UiT.