Comparing Lexical Retrieval Processing in People with Alzheimer's Disease, Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, and Parkinson's Disease to Healthy Older Adults

초록

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine whether multifaceted analyses of a lexical retrieval task can provide meaningful information for the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Methods: A total of 41 patients diagnosed with AD, NPH, or PD and 16 healthy elderly adults (HE) were tested on a lexical retrieval task. Response scores, response times, error types, and the percentage of errors resolved were compared across groups, and a correlation analysis with the Korean Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) was performed. Results: First, the AD, NPH, and PD groups had significantly fewer correct responses and significantly more incorrect responses than the HE group. The PD group made significantly more incorrect responses than the AD group. Second, the AD, NPH, PD group had significantly slower reaction times for correct responses than the HE group. Third, all four groups showed significantly more semantic errors than other error types, and the least were mixed errors. Fourth, the three patient groups were significantly less able to monitor and correct errors than the HE group. Fifth, the K-MMSE score was significantly positively correlated with the number of correct responses and negatively correlated with the number of incorrect responses, semantic errors, and unrelated errors. Conclusion: We suggest that the lexical retrieval task can be effectively used to screen patients with AD, NPH, and PD from HE, and explore its potential for differential diagnosis.

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