Sl. Thompson-schill et al., Effects of structural similarity and name frequency on picture naming in Alzheimer's disease, J INT NEURO, 5(7), 1999, pp. 659-667
Citations number
38
Categorie Soggetti
Neurology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Impairments to either perceptual or word-retrieval processes have been hypo
thesized to explain confrontation naming impairments in patients with Alzhe
imer's disease (AD). This study measured the effects of structural similari
ty, which affects perceptual processing! and name frequency, which affects
word retrieval, on naming latency and accuracy in 16 AD patients and 16 age
-matched controls. AD patients named pictures more slowly and made more err
ors than control participants. Their naming accuracy was disproportionately
affected by name frequency, but not by structural similarity. The findings
indicate that the processing of structural properties of objects is unaffe
cted in early-stage AD, and suggest that word-retrieval impairments underli
e the naming deficit in AD.