THE INVESTIGATION OF LEXICAL SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

The study of lexical semantic representation is central to an understa nding of brain and language. In Alzheimer's disease, neuropathological alterations consistently involve neocortical areas in which lexical s emantic information is represented, and patients with this common deme nting disorder evince priminent lexical semantic disturbances. General issues concern the establishment of new semantic memories, the manner in which meaning is represented within the lexicon, the retrieval of semantic information from the lexicon, and the relation between lexica l semantics and nonlinguistic cognitive processes. Studies of lexical semantic representation in patients with Alzheimer's disease are espec ially informative in considering all but the first of these key issues . (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.