Communication Disorders Technology (United States)

Early detection of Alzheimer disease (AD) is crucial; however, standard neuropsychological tests often lack sensitivity. Process scores, such as proper name (PN) recall from Logical Memory, may improve the detection of AD-related biomarker positivity. We examined whether baseline PN recall predicted future cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid (Aβ42/Aβ40) and tau (pTau 181 ) status, and whether biomarker status predicted PN recall trajectories. We analyzed 271 cognitively unimpaired BIOCARD participants (mean age=57.3, 60.3% female, mean follow-up=15.5) using logistic regression and mixed-effects models to examine the associations between PN recall and CSF biomarkers. Higher baseline PN recall predicted lower amyloid positivity [odds ratio (OR)=0.72, P =0.015]. Amyloid and tau positivity have been linked to a faster decline in PN. Biomarker-positive participants in the biomarker-negative group lacked practice effects. PN recall predicts future AD biomarker positivity and may enhance early detection of AD-related cognitive decline.

Objectives. This pilot study aimed to identify and test a battery of time-efficient and cost-effective voice and swallowing screening tools for post-extubated patients in Chile. Methods. A panel of four experts selected and rated voice and swallowing screening tools. Seven measures were selected: smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) and maximum phonation time (MPT) for voice assessment, Volume-Viscosity Swallow Test (V-VST) for swallowing, voluntary and reflex peak cough flow for cough assessment, Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10), and Vocal Symptom Scale (VoiSS) for patient-reported outcomes. These tools were applied to four post-extubation patients within 48-72 hours post-hospital discharge, alongside the assessment of 17 matched controls. Results. Post-extubation patients showed significantly shorter MPT, lower CPPS values, increased V-VST dysphagia signs, reduced voluntary peak cough flow, and more pronounced symptoms on both the VoiSS and EAT-10 compared to controls. Limitations. The study had a modest sample size and relied solely on clinical screening tools.Value. This pilot study suggests a feasible and cost-effective approach to voice and swallowing screening for post-extubation patients, valuable in resource-constrained settings.Conclusion. While these accessible tools are not gold-standard assessments, they offer valuable insights and can guide future research. This study underscores the potential of selected tools in facilitating early detection of voice and swallowing disorders in post-extubation patients.

Spoken word recognition is a critical hub during language processing, linking hearing and perception to meaning and syntax. Words must be recognized quickly and efficiently as speech unfolds to be successfully integrated into conversation. This makes word recognition a computationally challenging process even for young, normal hearing adults. Older adults often experience declines in hearing and cognition, which could be linked by age-related declines in the cognitive processes specific to word recognition. However, it is unclear whether changes in word recognition across the lifespan can be accounted for by hearing or domain-general cognition. Participants (N = 107) responded to spoken words in a Visual World Paradigm task while their eyes were tracked to assess the real-time dynamics of word recognition. We examined several indices of word recognition from early adolescence through older adulthood (ages 11 – 78). The timing and proportion of eye fixations to target and competitor images reveals that spoken word recognition became more efficient through age 25 and began to slow in middle age, accompanied by declines in the ability to resolve competition (e.g., suppressing sandwich to recognize sandal). There was a unique effect of age even after accounting for differences in inhibitory control, processing speed, and hearing thresholds. This suggests a limited age range where listeners are peak performers.

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) framework has been used for decades to explain two general component skills considered to contribute to reading comprehension: decoding and linguistic comprehension. In the past, researchers have assessed the linguistic comprehension component using a wide range of language and/or listening comprehension measures that differed from each other. Many of those tasks did not align with the concept of linguistic comprehension originally proposed. Regardless, the studies’ outcomes were similar: the SVR model adequately represents the process of reading comprehension. In this paper, I propose a common thread that links those diverse measurement tasks; all the tasks measured students’ metalinguistic skills. In fact, the findings from these studies mirror those found from investigations directly measuring the influence of language awareness abilities on reading comprehension. I conclude the paper with the theoretical and educational implications of taking a different view of the second component of the SVR model.

There is a strong relationship between reading and articulation (Lervåg & Hulme, 2009; Pan et al., 2011). Given the tight coupling of these processes, innovative approaches are needed to understand the intricacies associated with print-speech connections. Here we ran a series of tightly controlled experiments to examine the impact of mouth perturbations on silent reading. We altered the mouth, via somatosensory feedback, in several ways: (a) a large lollipop in the mouth (E1), (b) a candy stick (bite bar) held horizontally between the teeth (E2), and (c) lidocaine that served to numb the mouth (E3). Three tasks were completed: (a) picture categorization, (b) "spell" lexical decision (Spell-LDT; "does the letter string spell a real word, yes or no?"), and (c) "sound" lexical decision (Sound-LDT; "does the letter string sound like a real word, yes or no?"). Participants (N = 97; E1 = 27; E2 = 32; E3 = 38) completed each of the tasks two times: once with a somatosensory perturbation (lollipop, bite bar, or lidocaine) and once without. For each experiment, a linear mixed effects analysis was run. Overall, we found that the lollipop (E1) and lidocaine (E3) had some specific effects on word recognition (e.g., for "no" responses), particularly in the Spell-LDT, whereas the bite bar (E2) had no effect on word recognition. The picture categorization task was not impacted by any perturbations. These findings provide evidence that sensorimotor information is connected to reading. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of a print-to-speech framework. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

In the current study, we evaluated behavioral and electrophysiological evidence to determine whether bilinguals differ from monolinguals in the efficiency of response inhibition. Bilinguals and matched monolingual controls performed the flanker task while behavioral and electrophysiological measures were collected. Participants were slower and less accurate in responding to incongruent trials, but the magnitude of the behavioral effect of congruence was not modulated by participant group. The electrophysiological data revealed a biphasic N200/P300 signature. Incongruent trials elicited a larger N200 response, followed by a larger P300 response than congruent trials. The mean amplitude of the N200 component, a marker of conflict detection, was not modulated by group, suggesting that monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ on the ability to detect conflict. However, the mean amplitude of the P300 component, an index of response inhibition, was smaller in bilinguals than monolinguals. This indicates that bilinguals may be more efficient in resolving response conflict relative to monolinguals. Even though the two groups do not differ in behavioral task performance, the event-related potential (ERP) data suggest that monolinguals may be working harder to reach similar patterns of performance as bilinguals. The P300 magnitude correlated positively with picture naming latencies and negatively with Operation Span scores, suggesting that the ERP response to nonlinguistic conflict resolution may capture individual differences in language proficiency and cognitive resources.

Objectives: This study investigated how age differences impact the resolution of syntactic ambiguities arising through the manipulation of verb voice types and the number of noun phrases (NPs) in stimuli sets. The stimuli consisted of ambiguous sentences that we created by deleting case markers in Korean sentences. We examined resolution strategies from the viewpoint of the nominative-initial preference. Methods: A total of 105 Korean-speaking individuals participated in the study (young adults 49, old adults 56). We manipulated the number of NPs (1 vs. 2) and the verb voice types (active vs. passive) in morphologically ambiguous sentences with NPs that had no case markers. We administered a picture-selection task to examine this nominative-initial preference. Results: We found significant differences in the use of the nominative-initial strategy between the two age groups. Younger adults consistently demonstrated a preference for the nominative-initial strategy across conditions. In contrast, elderly adults presented less preference for the nominative-initial strategy than the younger adults. Conclusion: These findings indicate that elderly adults performed significantly differently in the engagement of the more frequently used syntactic template-based strategy (nominative-initial strategy) than younger adults when resolving syntactic ambiguity. The differences between the age groups in ambiguity resolution strategy may explain aging-related declines in sentence comprehension abilities.

This corrects the article "Research Trends on the Longitudinal Studies of Childhood Stuttering" in volume 24 on page 490.

This chapter describes the on-going development of a comprehensive reading comprehension program to be delivered by tutors in one-to-one sessions to third- and fourth-grade children at-risk for school failure. It develops a comprehensive program because reading for understanding requires the use of multiple skills and strategies. The program is comprehensive in two ways. It aims to teach a relatively large set of skills and strategies. The chapter integrates the teaching with cognitive training because many with poor comprehension also demonstrate weak cognitive abilities, such as working memory, that are strongly associated with understanding text. It characterizes our reading comprehension program as intensive intervention, partly because of its relative comprehensiveness, and describes a recently completed randomized control trial of its effects. The chapter contextualizes intensive intervention by discussing its relationship to Responsiveness to Intervention. Controlling for pretreatment reading comprehension, classroom and school effects, no statistically significant differences were detected between any of the treatment conditions and control on posttreatment reading comprehension.

배경 및 목적: 본 연구는 수여동사구문에서 중의성 여부 및 어순전형성에 따라 문장처리과정에서 청년층과 노년층 간 차이를 사건관 련전위(event-related potential, ERP)를 사용하여 살펴보고자 하였다. 방법: 총 48명(청년층 24명, 노년층 24명)이 참여하였으며, 문장판 단과제 및 온라인 뇌파 분석을 통해 문장처리과정을 살펴보았다....