Introduction : Noun-verb (N-V) dissociation – i.e. a grammatical class effect - was initially studied in aphasic patients, and it showed a bi-directional effect (N>V or V>N). This dissociation was then studied in patients with motor disorders: in particular, selective deficits of verbs (V) vs noun (N) processing were reported in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients (Rodríguez-Ferreiro et al., 2009; Herrera et al., 2010). In accordance with the Theory of Embodied Cognition, we initially speculated that PD patients could have greater difficulties in naming Vs rather than Ns, especially when it comes to action Vs, due to the fact that the processing of words referring to motion could depend on the integrity of cortical/sub-cortical motor structures. Methods : Three groups of participants - namely 30 control subjects, 19 subjects with pure Parkinson's disease (PD-), and 14 Parkinson's subjects with PD impairment associated with cognitive deficits (PD+) - were compared on tasks evaluating N and V lexical retrieval (confrontation naming: Crepaldi et al., 2006) and the integrity of visuo-perceptual and semantic knowledge (Visual Completion Test TCV; Semantic Association Test TAS; Reality Decision DR). Between groups comparisons were implemented using overdispersed generalized linear models (negative binomial). Logistic regression was implemented in order to investigate the effect of the degree of motor feature of lexical items (actionality) on N and V naming. Results : An effect of grammatical class was found for all participants (Ns were easier to retrieve than Vs). Furthermore, a significant effect of group was found. In the picture naming task control participants performed better than PD- and PD+. In addition, PD- made fewer errors than PD+. A greater number of errors was observed in PD+ and PD- when compared to control participants even in visuo-perceptual and semantic tasks. No significant difference was found between the two PD groups. Logistic regression analysis showed a positive effect of actionality: Vs with a high degree of motor feature were easier to retrieve for both control participants and PD patients (PD-, PD+). Discussion : N-V dissociation was found in all groups: with regards to its directionality, Ns were easier to retrieve than Vs for all groups. This seems to contradict results obtained in aphasic patients where a bi-directional effect was found (N>V, N

Grosso, M., Andriulo, A., Buscone, S., Caracciolo, C., Ottobrini, M., Aiello, E., et al. (2020). Noun-verb dissociation in Parkinson’s disease: the role of actionality.. Intervento presentato a: European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy.

Noun-verb dissociation in Parkinson’s disease: the role of actionality.

Edoardo Nicolò Aiello;Claudio Luzzatti
Ultimo
2020

Abstract

Introduction : Noun-verb (N-V) dissociation – i.e. a grammatical class effect - was initially studied in aphasic patients, and it showed a bi-directional effect (N>V or V>N). This dissociation was then studied in patients with motor disorders: in particular, selective deficits of verbs (V) vs noun (N) processing were reported in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients (Rodríguez-Ferreiro et al., 2009; Herrera et al., 2010). In accordance with the Theory of Embodied Cognition, we initially speculated that PD patients could have greater difficulties in naming Vs rather than Ns, especially when it comes to action Vs, due to the fact that the processing of words referring to motion could depend on the integrity of cortical/sub-cortical motor structures. Methods : Three groups of participants - namely 30 control subjects, 19 subjects with pure Parkinson's disease (PD-), and 14 Parkinson's subjects with PD impairment associated with cognitive deficits (PD+) - were compared on tasks evaluating N and V lexical retrieval (confrontation naming: Crepaldi et al., 2006) and the integrity of visuo-perceptual and semantic knowledge (Visual Completion Test TCV; Semantic Association Test TAS; Reality Decision DR). Between groups comparisons were implemented using overdispersed generalized linear models (negative binomial). Logistic regression was implemented in order to investigate the effect of the degree of motor feature of lexical items (actionality) on N and V naming. Results : An effect of grammatical class was found for all participants (Ns were easier to retrieve than Vs). Furthermore, a significant effect of group was found. In the picture naming task control participants performed better than PD- and PD+. In addition, PD- made fewer errors than PD+. A greater number of errors was observed in PD+ and PD- when compared to control participants even in visuo-perceptual and semantic tasks. No significant difference was found between the two PD groups. Logistic regression analysis showed a positive effect of actionality: Vs with a high degree of motor feature were easier to retrieve for both control participants and PD patients (PD-, PD+). Discussion : N-V dissociation was found in all groups: with regards to its directionality, Ns were easier to retrieve than Vs for all groups. This seems to contradict results obtained in aphasic patients where a bi-directional effect was found (N>V, N
abstract + poster
noun-verb dissociation; Parkinson's disease; actionality; neurolinguistics
English
European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology
2020
2020
none
Grosso, M., Andriulo, A., Buscone, S., Caracciolo, C., Ottobrini, M., Aiello, E., et al. (2020). Noun-verb dissociation in Parkinson’s disease: the role of actionality.. Intervento presentato a: European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/259811
Citazioni
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
Social impact