NARRATIVE DISCOURSE IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS - AN INVESTIGATION OF CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE

The aim of the present study was to determine whether multiple scleros is (MS) affects a person's ability to formulate message content in nar rative discourse. Discourse samples were elicited from 47 persons with MS and 47 matched controls in response to computer-generated, animate d sequences. Within the conceptual level of discourse processing, data were analysed for story schema and informative content. The two group s, MS and control, could not be distinguished by measures of the quant ity of information conveyed. However, results revealed a difference in the nature of the information produced by the two groups. The persons with MS produced less essential story information than control subjec ts, while a tendency for the persons with MS to produce more incorrect and ambiguous information than controls was also noted. A number of f actors were considered in an attempt to explain the underlying source of these differences. It was postulated that both pragmatic and cognit ive skills impact on performance in the narrative genre; hence, defici ts in these areas may have contributed to the observed performance def icits. The nature of the deficits was considered consistent with subco rtical plaque damage affecting fibre tracts between and within cerebra l hemispheres. The findings of the present study suggest that further research into narrative production in MS is warranted.