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Referential communication in Alzheimer's type dementia
Carlomagno S, Santoro A, Menditti A, Pandolfi M, Marini A.. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 2005-08-01
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
This paper investigates factors that underlie reduced informative content and lack of reference in the discourse of patients with Alzheimer's Type Dementia (DAT). Patients with DAT, fluent aphasics and normal controls were given a referential communication task structured to assess lexical encoding of information, pragmatic/conceptual elaboration of information and effectiveness in establishing reference. The subjects also received standardised aphasia tests (CADL, Holland, 1980; and Cookie Theft Picture Description, Nicholas and Brookshire, 1993). Comparable reduction of lexical encoding of information was found in the discourse of aphasic and DAT participants both on the referential communication task measures and on the standardised evaluation with the Cookie Theft Picture Description test. However, the DAT subjects' discourse on the referential communication task was less efficient in establishing reference than that of the aphasics since the former presented more misunderstandings and required more explicit prompts from the listener. Furthermore, the DAT language on the referential communication task contained confounding and irrelevant information; also, the number of these errors correlated negatively with their referring abilities. Results of the CADL test confirmed that the DAT participants had less communicative effectiveness than their lexical deficit alone predicted. Finally, examination of the performance of individual DAT subjects showed that lexical encoding of information could dissociate from effectiveness in making reference. These findings support the view that difficulty in pragmatic/conceptual elaboration of discourse information content plays a substantial role in the development of reduced information content and lack of reference of DAT "empty speech". These results are discussed in the framework of the hypothesis of early attentional/executive impairment in DAT (Perry and Hodges, 1999).
Key findings
- Results of the CADL test confirmed that the DAT participants had less communicative effectiveness than their lexical deficit alone predicted.
- Finally, examination of the performance of individual DAT subjects showed that lexical encoding of information could dissociate from effectiveness in making reference.
- These findings support the view that difficulty in pragmatic/conceptual elaboration of discourse information content plays a substantial role in the development of reduced information content and lack of reference of DAT "empty speech".
- These results are discussed in the framework of the hypothesis of early attentional/executive impairment in DAT (Perry and Hodges, 1999).
Why it matters
This study shows that people with Alzheimer's type dementia are less effective at making themselves understood than their word-finding problems alone would predict. It offers no treatment or prevention, only insight into how communication breaks down.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 43/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | Cortex: journal h-index 202 (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 | 2005 — older than 20 years, still counted |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| 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 (pubmed indexes it as a clinical or observational study) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 5 / 7 | Cited 129 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 5.6 citations a year over 23 year(s) since 2005 |
| Impact for its field and year | 2 / 6 | Cited 1.8× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 2 / 6 | Cited by 3 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 1 / 4 | Cited 11 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 2 / 4 | Last-listed author Andrea Marini: h-index 33 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | University of Naples Federico II: institution h-index 862 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 4 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 16042028) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 43 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Carlomagno, S., Santoro, A., Menditti, A., Pandolfi, M., & Marini, A. (2005). Referential communication in Alzheimer's type dementia. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70192-8
Vancouver
Carlomagno S, Santoro A, Menditti A, Pandolfi M, Marini A. Referential communication in Alzheimer's type dementia. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. 2005. doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70192-8. PMID: 16042028.
BibTeX
@article{carlomagno2005-16042028,
author = {Carlomagno, S. and Santoro, A. and Menditti, A. and Pandolfi, M. and Marini, A.},
title = {{Referential communication in Alzheimer's type dementia}},
journal = {Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior},
year = {2005},
doi = {10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70192-8},
pmid = {16042028},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70192-8}
}
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