A review of discourse and conversation impairments in patients with dementia
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Neurodegeneration characterizes patients with different dementia subtypes (e.g., patients with Alzheimer's Disease, Primary Progressive Aphasia, and Parkinson's Disease), leading to progressive decline in cognitive, linguistic, and social functioning. Speech and language impairments are early symptoms in patients with focal forms of neurodegenerative conditions, coupled with deficits in cognitive, social, and behavioral domains. This paper reviews the findings on language and communication deficits and identifies the effects of dementia on the production and perception of discourse. It discusses findings concerning (i) language function, cognitive representation, and impairment , (ii) communicative competence, emotions, empathy, and theory-of-mind, and (iii) speech-in-interaction. It argues that clinical discourse analysis can provide a comprehensive assessment of language and communication skills in patients, which complements the existing neurolinguistic evaluation for (differential) diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment efficacy evaluation.
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