Divided attention, as measured by dichotic speech performance, in dementia of the Alzheimer type

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

To determine if impaired dichotic performance in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type is due to the inability to divide attention or the inability to perceive degraded auditory stimuli, we measured performance on tasks of both dichotic and degraded monotic speech materials. We also examined whether perception of degraded speech stimuli presented monaurally is related to abnormalities of temporal lobe anatomy and physiology, as we have shown for dichotic performance. Although the patients were impaired on both dichotic and monotic tests, significantly greater impairment was seen on the dichotic test. Our earlier finding of a significant relation between dichotic performance and measures of anterior temporal lobe atrophy and reduced glucose metabolism was replicated, but no significant relation was found between monotic tests and measures to temporal lobe integrity. We conclude that the inability to divide attention, rather than abnormal processing of degraded stimuli per se, is reflected in poor dichotic performance in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type, and that dichotic performance, unlike degraded monotic perception, depends directly on the integrity of temporal cortex in these patients.

Key findings

• Although the patients were impaired on both dichotic and monotic tests, significantly greater impairment was seen on the dichotic test.
• Our earlier finding of a significant relation between dichotic performance and measures of anterior temporal lobe atrophy and reduced glucose metabolism was replicated, but no significant relation was found between monotic tests and measures to temporal lobe integrity.
• We conclude that the inability to divide attention, rather than abnormal processing of degraded stimuli per se, is reflected in poor dichotic performance in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type, and that dichotic performance, unlike degraded monotic perception, depends directly on the integrity of temporal cortex in these patients.

Why it matters

This study found that patients with Alzheimer-type dementia were more impaired on a dichotic speech test than on degraded monotic speech tests, concluding the difficulty reflects an inability to divide attention. It examines cognitive mechanisms and does not report any treatment, cure, or prevention.

New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Digital health →

Study details

• Evidence strengthLow

Read the original

• DOI: 10.1001/archneur.1989.00520390083021
• PubMed: 2919988
• Original source →

Free copy unknown: no free-copy check has an answer for this record yet. That does not mean it is paywalled.

@article{grady1989-2919988,
  author  = {Grady, C. L. and Grimes, A. M. and Patronas, N. and Sunderland, T. and Foster, N. L. and Rapoport, S. I.},
  title   = {{Divided attention, as measured by dichotic speech performance, in dementia of the Alzheimer type}},
  journal = {Archives of neurology},
  year    = {1989},
  doi     = {10.1001/archneur.1989.00520390083021},
  pmid    = {2919988},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.1989.00520390083021}
}

Studies this one cites

Referenced by this study and also in the alzhub library, so you can read them here.

• Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: report of the NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease Neurology · 1984-07-01 · usefulness score 58/100 · Getting a diagnosis
• Positron emission tomography in Alzheimer's disease Neurology · 1986-07-01 · usefulness score 53/100 · Getting a diagnosis

Related studies in Digital health tools

• Influence of executive function on locomotor function: divided attention increases gait variability in Alzheimer's disease Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2003-11-01 · usefulness score 43/100
• Analysis of spontaneous, conversational speech in dementia of Alzheimer type: Evaluation of an objective technique for analysing lexical performance Aphasiology · 2000-01-01 · usefulness score 34/100
• Spontaneous speech of patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type and mild cognitive impairment International psychogeriatrics · 2001-09-01 · usefulness score 39/100
• Effect of a robotic seal on the motor activity and sleep patterns of older people with dementia, as measured by wearable technology: A cluster-randomised controlled trial Maturitas · 2018-01-13 · usefulness score 64/100
• A metabolite-based machine learning approach to diagnose Alzheimer-type dementia in blood: Results from the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer disease biomarker discovery cohort Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.) · 2019-12-18 · usefulness score 58/100
• Management of cognitive determinants in senile dementia of Alzheimer's type: therapeutic potential of a novel polyherbal drug product Clinical drug investigation · 2014-12-01 · usefulness score 58/100

Similar studies

• An analysis of communication in conversation in patients with dementia 2010 · Digital health tools
• Comparisons of verbal fluency tasks in the detection of dementia of the Alzheimer type 1992 · Getting a diagnosis
• Advanced dementia: state of the art and priorities for the next decade 2012 · Disparities
• Aphasia in dementia of the Alzheimer type 1985 · Digital health tools
• Fractionating verbal episodic memory in Alzheimer's disease 2011 · Hippocampus size on brain scans
• Attention and driving performance in Alzheimer's disease 1998 · Clinical safety

More on Digital health tools

• A review that covers this ground Poor Gait Performance and Prediction of Dementia: Results From a Meta-Analysis Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2016-02-04 · usefulness score 69/100
• Newest in this subject Speaker-Wise Dementia Screening fromNaturalistic Speech with Lexical Entropy, Semantic Drift, and Multimodal Fusion Research Square · 2026-10-21 · Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed · usefulness score 16/100
• Newest in this subject Integrating Multisource Target Evidence with Machine-Learning Potency Prediction for Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Discovery bioRxiv · 2026-10-20 · Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed · usefulness score 16/100

See all studies in Digital health tools →