Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:39:01.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Semantic network abnormality predicts rate of cognitive decline in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2009

Agnes S. Chan ,
David P. Salmon ,
Nelson Butters  and
Shannon A. Johnson
Agnes S. Chan
Affiliation:
Psychology Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, CA 92161 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
David P. Salmon
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
Nelson Butters
Affiliation:
Psychology Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, CA 92161 Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
Shannon A. Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between rate of cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the integrity of the network of associations that comprise their semantic knowledge. The integrity of the semantic network of 12 AD patients was determined by comparing their networks to a standard normal control network derived with Pathfinder analysis, a multidimensional graphic analysis technique. A simple linear regression analysis, comparing the degree of semantic network deterioration with rate of cognitive decline as measured by the difference between the Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) scores obtained at the time of the testing of semantic knowledge (Year 1) and one year later (Year 2), was highly significant (r2 = .84; p < .001). These results suggest that a sensitive measure of the structural deterioration of semantic knowledge may be useful for predicting the rate of progression of cognitive changes in patients with AD. (JINS, 1995, I, 297–303.)

Keywords

Semantic networkCognitive declineAlzheimer's disease
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , May 1995 , pp. 297 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arriagada, P.V., Growdon, J.H., Hedley-Whyte, E.T., & Hyman, B. T. (1992). Neurofibrillary tangles but not senile plaques parallel duration and severity of Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 42, 631–639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bancher, C., Braak, H., Fischer, P., & Jellinger, K. A. (1993). Neuropathological staging of Alzheimer lesions and intellectual status in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease patients. Neuroscience Letters, 162, 179–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Battig, W. F. & Montague, W. E. (1969). Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms [monograph]. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 80, 1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berg, L., Danziger, W.L., Storandt, M., Coben, L.A., Gado, M., Hughes, C.P., Knesevich, J.W., & Botwinick, J. (1984). Predictive features in mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Neurology, 34, 563–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boller, F., Becker, J.T., Holland, A.L., Forbes, M.M., Hood, P.C., & McGonigle-Gibson, K. L. (1991). Predictors of decline in Alzheimer's disease. Cortex, 27, 9–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botwinick, J., Storandt, M., & Berg, L. (1986). A longitudinal, behavioral study of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. Archives of Neurology, 43, 1124–1127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braak, H. & Braak, E. (1991). Neuropathological staging of Alzheimer-related changes. ActaNeuropathology, 82, 239–259.Google ScholarPubMed
Chan, A.S., Butters, N., Paulsen, J.S., Salmon, D.P., Swcnson, M., & Maloney, L. (1993a). An assessment of the semantic network in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Cog-nitive Neuroscience, 5, 254–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chan, A.S., Butters, N., Salmon, D.P., Johnson, S.A., Paulsen, J.S., & Swenson, M. (in press). A comparison of the semantic networks of demented and amnesic patients. Neuropsychology.Google Scholar
Chan, A.S., Butters, N., Salmon, D.P., & McGuire, K.A. (1993b). Dimensionality and clustering in the semantic networks of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Psychology and Aging, 8, 411–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chertkow, H. & Bub, D. (1990). Semantic memory loss in dementia of Alzheimer's type: What do various measures measure? Brain, 133, 397–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, A.M. & Loftus, E.F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Lacoste, M. & White, C.L. (1993). The role of cortical connectivity in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis: A review and model system. Neurobiology of Aging, 14, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dearholt, D.W. & Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1990). Properties of pathfinder networks. In Schvaneveldt, R.W. (Ed.), Pathfinder associative networks: Studies in knowledge organization (pp. 1–30). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Faber-Langendoen, K., Morris, J.C., Knesevich, J.W., LaBarge, E., Miller, J.P., & Berg, L. (1988). Aphasia in senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Annals of Neurology, 23, 365–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galasko, D., Corey-Bloom, J., & Thal, L.J. (1991). Monitoring progression in Alzheimer's disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 39, 932–941.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldsmith, T.E. & Davenport, D.M. (1990). Assessing structural similarity of graphs. In Schvaneveldt, R.W. (Ed.), Pathfinder associative networks: Studies in knowledge organization (pp. 75–87). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H. & Kaplan, E. (1972). The assessment of aphasia and related disorders. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger.Google Scholar
Hachinski, V.C., Illiff, L.D., Zilhka, E., DuBoulay, G.H., McAllister, V.L., Marshall, J., Russell, R.W.R., & Symon, L. (1975). Cerebral blood flow in dementia. Archives of Neurology, 32, 632–637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haxby, J.V., Grady, C.L., Koss, E., Horwitz, B., Heston, L., Schapiro, M., Friedland, R.P., & Rapoport, S.I. (1990). Longitudinal study of cerebral metabolic asymmetries and associated neuropsychological patterns in early dementia of the Alzheimer type. Archives of Neurology, 47, 753–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hodges, J., Salmon, D.P., & Butters, N. (1991). The nature of the naming deficit in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease. Brain, 114, 1547–1558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huff, F.J., Growdon, J.H., Corkin, S., & Rosen, T.J. (1987). Age at onset and rate of progression of Alzheimer's disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 35, 27–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hughes, C.P., Berg, L., Danziger, W.L., Coben, L.A. & Martin, R.L. (1982). A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 566–572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyman, B.T., Van Hoesen, G.W., Damasio, A.R., & Barnes, C.L. (1984). Alzheimer's disease: Cell-specific pathology isolates the hippocampal formation. Science, 225, 1168–1170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katzman, R. & Jackson, E. (1991). Alzheimer disease: Basic and clinical advances. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 39, 516–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Knesevich, J.W., LaBarge, E., & Edwards, D. (1986). Predictive value of the Boston naming test in mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Psychiatry Research, 19, 155–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, O.L., Becker, J.T., Rezek, D., Wess, J., Boller, F., & Reynolds, C.F. (1992). Neuropsychiatric correlates of cerebral white-matter radiolucencies in probable Alzheimer's disease. Archives of Neurology, 49, 828–834.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucca, U., Comelli, M., Tettamanti, M., Tiraboschi, P., & Spagnoli, A. (1993). Rate of progression and prognostic factors in Alzheimer's disease: A prospective study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 41, 45–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, J. (1988). Sensation and semantics. Nature, 334, 378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, A. (1987). Representation of semantic and spatial knowledge in Alzheimer's patients: Implications for models of preserved learning in amnesia. Journal of Clinical and Ex-perimental Neuropsychology, 9, 191–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, A. & Fedio, P. (1983). Word production and comprehension in Alzheimer's disease: The breakdown of semantic knowledge. Brain and Language, 19, 124–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mattis, S. (1976). Mental status examination for organic mental syndrome in the elderly patient. In Bellack, L. & Karasu, T.B. (Eds.), Geriatric psychiatry (pp. 77–121). New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
McCarthy, R.A. & Warrington, E.K. (1990). The dissolution of semantics. Nature, 343, 599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGeer, E.G., Peppard, R.P., McGeer, P.L., Tuokko, H., Crockett, D., Parks, R., Akiyama, H., Calne, D.B., Beattie, B.L., & Harrop, R. (1990). 18Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography studies in presumed Alzheimer cases, including 13 serial scans. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, 17, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D., & Stadlan, E.M. (1984). 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, 34, 939–944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mortimer, J.A., Ebbitt, B., Jun, S., & Finch, M.D. (1992). Predictors of cognitive and functional progression in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 42, 1689–1696.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pearson, R.C.A., Esiri, M.M., Hiorns, R.W., Wilcock, G.K., & Powell, T.P.S. (1985). Anatomical correlates of the distribution of the pathological changes in the neocortex in Alzheimer disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 82, 4521–4534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosen, W.G., Terry, R.D., Fuld, P.A., Katzman, R., & Peck, A. (1980). Pathological verification of ischemia score in differentiation of dementias. Annals of Neurology, 7, 486–488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ritchie, K. & Touchon, J. (1992). Heterogeneity in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type: Individual differences, progressive deterioration of clinical sub-types? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 45, 1391–1398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rumelhart, D. & McClelland, J. (1986). Parallel distributed processing: Explorations in the microstructure of cognition. Vol 1: Foundations. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, D.P., Thal, L.J., Butters, N., & Heindel, W.C. (1990). Longitudinal evaluation of dementia of the Alzheimer type: A comparison of 3 standardized mental status examinations. Neurology, 40, 1225–1230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seltzer, B. & Sherwin, I. (1984). A comparison of clinical features in early- and late-onset primary degenerative dementia. Archives of Neurology, 40, 143–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teri, L., Hughes, J.P., & Larson, E.B. (1990) Cognitive deterioration in Alzheimer's disease: Behavioral and health factors. Journal of Gerontology, 45, 58–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Terry, R.D., Masliah, E., Salmon, D.P., Butters, N., DeTeresa, R., Hill, R., Hansen, L.A., & Katzman, R. (1991). Physical basis of cognitive alterations in Alzheimer's disease: Synapse loss is the major correlate of cognitive impairment. Annals of Neurology, 30, 572–580.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welsh, A., Butters, N., Hughes, J., Mohs, R. & Heyman, A. (1991). Detection of abnormal memory decline in mild cases of Alzheimer's disease using CERAD neuropsychological measures. Archives of Neurology, 48, 278–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed