Doctors who study or treat Alzheimer's disease and its early clinical stages (mild cognitive impairment, MCI) are focused on the obvious problems with short-term memory. However, a new study suggests that people with later development of Alzheimer's disease can have problems much earlier, in the processing of semantic information or data based on previous knowledge, which could have great significance in the manner in which these patients are functioning in everyday life.
First Indications of Cognitive Problems
Terry Goldberg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behaviorism in the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University and director of department for neurocognition in the Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in in Manhasset, New York, said that doctors have noticed a variety of cognitive disorders in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, but they were not systematically studied. A large number of experts noted that some of the patients find even the simplest tasks extremely confusing. In this latest study, which was published in monthly American Journal of Psychiatry, cleverly designed tests are used to analyze the ability of individuals for the processing of semantic information.
Do people with Mild Cognitive Impairment have problems in accessing certain types of prior acquired knowledge? Are there any obvious semantic problems which have not been observed? The answer is yes.
The Experiment
To test the system is semantic processing, dr Goldberg and his colleagues needed a task that does not include a verbal response. That would be confusing, and the results would be more difficult to interpret. They decided to use size to test a person's ability to use semantic information to make a conclusion on two opposed definitions. Doctor Goldberg explained: "If someone is asked what is more, the key or ant, he will respond more slowly than if you ask him what is larger, a house or a key." The greater the difference in size between the two things, the more quickly will the person, being healthy or not , recognize the difference and respond.
The study included 25 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 27 with Alzheimer's disease and 70 people with no cognitive problems. They found that there are significant differences between healthy controls and patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Doctor Goldberg concluded that the results indicate problems in the processing of semantic information. It is mostly seen when the patients with mild cognitive disorder and Alzheimer's disease cope with the task with small differences in size.
Then they made the task more complicated by showing patients the images of little ants and big houses or big ants and small houses. This time the patients with mild cognitive disorder and with Alzheimer's disease solved the first part of the test without any problems - when they were asked what is bigger, they chose a house, not an ant. But if the pictures did not reflect reality - a big ant looked like a little house - they were confused, answered incorrectly, or they took longer to respond.
Patients with mild cognitive impairment were somewhere between those of healthy and those with Alzheimer's disease. "When the decision was difficult, the reaction time was slower."
Would Damage to The Semantic System Influence The Everyday Functions?
To answer this question, researchers have turned to UCSD scale to evaluate the use of skills, the tool which is used in patients with mild cognitive disorder and Alzheimer's disease and in patients with schizophrenia, to determine the functional deficiencies. The test examines the ability of a person to perform complex checks or to organize a trip to the zoo for a cold day.
It's a good way to check whether someone has a problem with the semantic knowledge. Semantic processing takes place in the left temporal lobe. "The semantic system is organized as a network that reflects the various types of relationships and associations," said the researchers in the study. "Semantic data and knowledge are acquired in the larger intervals, often through a large number of repetitions, and do not reflect what has been recently adopted."
Doctor Goldberg says that this discovery is very important because it might be possible to strengthen by training the connections that arise in semantic processing. "This suggests that patients are getting slow due to semantic and not episodic memory," said Goldberg. Patients will be observed further in order to determine whether the deteriorating semantic problems worsen as the disease progresses.
Within additional article, David P. Salmon, Ph.D., from Department of Neuroscience at the University of California, said that "deficiencies in semantic memory, that this study demonstrated, confirm the suspicion that in patients with mild cognitive impairment of an anamnestic type, happens a slight cognitive impairment. Since the task did not require problematic remembering and reproduction of certain words or linguistic structures, it can be concluded that these shortcomings reflect the early and gradual loss of the integrity of semantic knowledge. "
He added that "This study proves that the deterioration of semantic memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment can contribute to the reduced ability to perform everyday activities."
Institute for Medical Research Feinstein
The Institute for Medical Research Feinstein, based in Manhasset, New York, many leading international scientists are engaged in areas such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, psychiatric disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sepsis, genetics, pulmonary hypertension, leukemia, neuroimmunology, and medical chemistry. The institute, which is part of the North Shore Health System , belongs to the top 5% of all state institutes according to scholarships awarded to research centers for health care.
A Major Step Toward Developing The Vaccine For Alzheimer's Disease
A team of researchers from the Center for Research CHU (France, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire) at the University of Laval in Quebec and pharmacological company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has found a way to stimulate the natural defense mechanisms of the brain in people who suffer from Alzheimer's disease. This is an important achievement, and its details have been published in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This research opened the door to the development of effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease and toward finding an efficient vaccine.
First Indications of Cognitive Problems
Terry Goldberg, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behaviorism in the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine at Hofstra University and director of department for neurocognition in the Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Center at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in in Manhasset, New York, said that doctors have noticed a variety of cognitive disorders in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, but they were not systematically studied. A large number of experts noted that some of the patients find even the simplest tasks extremely confusing. In this latest study, which was published in monthly American Journal of Psychiatry, cleverly designed tests are used to analyze the ability of individuals for the processing of semantic information.
Do people with Mild Cognitive Impairment have problems in accessing certain types of prior acquired knowledge? Are there any obvious semantic problems which have not been observed? The answer is yes.
The Experiment
To test the system is semantic processing, dr Goldberg and his colleagues needed a task that does not include a verbal response. That would be confusing, and the results would be more difficult to interpret. They decided to use size to test a person's ability to use semantic information to make a conclusion on two opposed definitions. Doctor Goldberg explained: "If someone is asked what is more, the key or ant, he will respond more slowly than if you ask him what is larger, a house or a key." The greater the difference in size between the two things, the more quickly will the person, being healthy or not , recognize the difference and respond.
The study included 25 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 27 with Alzheimer's disease and 70 people with no cognitive problems. They found that there are significant differences between healthy controls and patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Doctor Goldberg concluded that the results indicate problems in the processing of semantic information. It is mostly seen when the patients with mild cognitive disorder and Alzheimer's disease cope with the task with small differences in size.
Then they made the task more complicated by showing patients the images of little ants and big houses or big ants and small houses. This time the patients with mild cognitive disorder and with Alzheimer's disease solved the first part of the test without any problems - when they were asked what is bigger, they chose a house, not an ant. But if the pictures did not reflect reality - a big ant looked like a little house - they were confused, answered incorrectly, or they took longer to respond.
Patients with mild cognitive impairment were somewhere between those of healthy and those with Alzheimer's disease. "When the decision was difficult, the reaction time was slower."
Would Damage to The Semantic System Influence The Everyday Functions?
To answer this question, researchers have turned to UCSD scale to evaluate the use of skills, the tool which is used in patients with mild cognitive disorder and Alzheimer's disease and in patients with schizophrenia, to determine the functional deficiencies. The test examines the ability of a person to perform complex checks or to organize a trip to the zoo for a cold day.
It's a good way to check whether someone has a problem with the semantic knowledge. Semantic processing takes place in the left temporal lobe. "The semantic system is organized as a network that reflects the various types of relationships and associations," said the researchers in the study. "Semantic data and knowledge are acquired in the larger intervals, often through a large number of repetitions, and do not reflect what has been recently adopted."
Doctor Goldberg says that this discovery is very important because it might be possible to strengthen by training the connections that arise in semantic processing. "This suggests that patients are getting slow due to semantic and not episodic memory," said Goldberg. Patients will be observed further in order to determine whether the deteriorating semantic problems worsen as the disease progresses.
Within additional article, David P. Salmon, Ph.D., from Department of Neuroscience at the University of California, said that "deficiencies in semantic memory, that this study demonstrated, confirm the suspicion that in patients with mild cognitive impairment of an anamnestic type, happens a slight cognitive impairment. Since the task did not require problematic remembering and reproduction of certain words or linguistic structures, it can be concluded that these shortcomings reflect the early and gradual loss of the integrity of semantic knowledge. "
He added that "This study proves that the deterioration of semantic memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment can contribute to the reduced ability to perform everyday activities."
Institute for Medical Research Feinstein
The Institute for Medical Research Feinstein, based in Manhasset, New York, many leading international scientists are engaged in areas such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, psychiatric disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, sepsis, genetics, pulmonary hypertension, leukemia, neuroimmunology, and medical chemistry. The institute, which is part of the North Shore Health System , belongs to the top 5% of all state institutes according to scholarships awarded to research centers for health care.
A Major Step Toward Developing The Vaccine For Alzheimer's Disease
A team of researchers from the Center for Research CHU (France, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire) at the University of Laval in Quebec and pharmacological company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has found a way to stimulate the natural defense mechanisms of the brain in people who suffer from Alzheimer's disease. This is an important achievement, and its details have been published in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This research opened the door to the development of effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease and toward finding an efficient vaccine.