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Deficits in narrative discourse elicited by visual stimuli are already present in patients with mild cognitive impairment
Drummond C, Coutinho G, Fonseca RP, Assunção N, Teldeschi A, de Oliveira-Souza R, Moll J, Tovar-Moll F et al.. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 2015-05-28
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Language batteries used to assess the skills of elderly individuals, such as naming and semantic verbal fluency, present some limitations in differentiating healthy controls from patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). Deficits in narrative discourse occur early in dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the narrative discourse abilities of a-MCI patients are poorly documented. The present study sought to propose and evaluate parameters for investigating narrative discourse in these populations. After a pilot study of 30 healthy subjects who served as a preliminary investigation of macro- and micro-linguistic aspects, 77 individuals (patients with AD and a-MCI and a control group) were evaluated. The experimental task required the participants to narrate a story based on a sequence of actions visually presented. The Control and AD groups differed in all parameters except narrative time and the total number of words recalled. The a-MCI group displayed mild discursive difficulties that were characterized as an intermediate stage between the Control and AD groups' performances. The a-MCI and Control groups differed from the AD group with respect to global coherence, discourse type and referential cohesion. The a-MCI and AD groups were similar to one another but differed from the Control group with respect to the type of words recalled, the repetition of words in the same sentence, the narrative structure and the inclusion of irrelevant propositions in the narrative. The narrative parameter that best distinguished the three groups was the speech effectiveness index. The proposed task was able to reveal differences between healthy controls and groups with cognitive decline. According to our findings, patients with a-MCI already present narrative deficits that are characterized by mild discursive difficulties that are less severe than those found in patients with AD.
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APA 7th
Drummond, C., Coutinho, G., Fonseca, R. P., Assunção, N., Teldeschi, A., de Oliveira-Souza, R., et al. (2015). Deficits in narrative discourse elicited by visual stimuli are already present in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Frontiers in aging neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00096
Vancouver
Drummond C, Coutinho G, Fonseca RP, Assunção N, Teldeschi A, de Oliveira-Souza R, et al. Deficits in narrative discourse elicited by visual stimuli are already present in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Frontiers in aging neuroscience. 2015. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2015.00096. PMID: 26074814.
BibTeX
@article{drummond2015-26074814,
author = {Drummond, C. and Coutinho, G. and Fonseca, R. P. and Assunção, N. and Teldeschi, A. and de Oliveira-Souza, R. and Moll, J. and Tovar-Moll, F. and others},
title = {{Deficits in narrative discourse elicited by visual stimuli are already present in patients with mild cognitive impairment}},
journal = {Frontiers in aging neuroscience},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.3389/fnagi.2015.00096},
pmid = {26074814},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00096}
}
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Key findings
- According to our findings, patients with a-MCI already present narrative deficits that are characterized by mild discursive difficulties that are less severe than those found in patients with AD.
Why it matters
Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment already show mild narrative discourse deficits that are intermediate between healthy controls and those with Alzheimer's disease. This finding is about early detection of language changes and does not address treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Participants77
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 46/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Frontiers in aging neuroscience) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience: journal h-index 174 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2015 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 1 / 4 | 77 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 5 / 7 | Cited 144 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 3 / 5 | 11.1 citations a year over 13 year(s) since 2015 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 5.3× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 2 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 39 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 2 / 4 | Last-listed author Paulo Mattos: h-index 36 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 0 / 3 | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro: institution h-index 617 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 1 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 3 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 26074814) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Total | 46 / 100 | — |
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Read the original
- DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00096
- PubMed: 26074814
- Original source →
- Free full text: Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
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