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. 2020 Jan-Dec:35:1533317520917294.
doi: 10.1177/1533317520917294.

Evaluating Semantic Knowledge Through a Semantic Association Task in Individuals With Dementia

Claudio Luzzatti  1 , Ilaria Mauri  1 , Stefania Castiglioni  2 , Marta Zuffi  2 , Chiara Spartà  1 , Francesco Somalvico  3 , Massimo Franceschi  2
Affiliations

Evaluating Semantic Knowledge Through a Semantic Association Task in Individuals With Dementia

Claudio Luzzatti et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2020 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Conceptual knowledge is supported by multiple semantic systems that are specialized for the analysis of different properties associated with object concepts. Various types of semantic association between concrete concepts-categorical (CA), encyclopedic (EA), functional (FA), and visual-encyclopedic (VEA) associations-were tested through a new picture-to-picture matching task (semantic association task, SAT). Forty individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 13 with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD), 6 with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and 37 healthy participants were tested with the SAT. Within-group comparisons highlighted a global impairment of all types of semantic association in bv-FTD individuals but a disproportionate impairment of EA and FA, with relative sparing of CA and VEA, in AD individuals. Single-case analyses detected dissociations in all dementia groups. Conceptual knowledge can be selectively impaired in various types of neurodegenerative disease on the basis of the specific cognitive process that is disrupted.

Keywords: dissociated semantic impairment; multiple semantic systems; neurodegenerative diseases; semantic association task; semantic breakdown; semantic knowledge.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Examples of stimuli presented in the VCT and the ORDT. On the top: 2 examples of stimuli used in the animals (on the left) and in the artifact objects (on the right) subtests of the VCT. On the bottom: example of a chimeric figure used in the ORDT. ORDT, object reality decision task; VCT, visual completion task.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Examples of cards used in the SAT task. From the left top corner: categorical associations (CA), encyclopedic association (EA), functional association (FA), and visual encyclopedic association (VEA).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Performance obtained by individuals with AD (in blue), persons with by-FTD (in red) and control participants (in green) on the 4 SAT subsets.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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