One of the most significant public health challenges facing much of the industrialized world today involves the management of Alzheimer's Disease and associated dementias. Although advances in molecular biology hold promise for identifying drug targets that will slow the progression of several forms of dementia, our healthcare system remains limited in its capacity to effectively treat macro-scale deficits in cognition and language This is especially true with respect to progressive disorders of language and human communication, many of which reflect the loss of conceptual knowledge (i.e., semantic memory). To date, the development of theoretically-principled language interventions for dementia has been limited by two factors. First, neuroscience lacks a cohesive understanding of how regional brain damage impacts the organization and integrity of human semantic memory. Second, traditional neuropsychological rehabilitation approaches assume that learning is not possible in the context of progressive memory disorders. We seek to overcome these limitations through two specific aims.
In Specific Aim 1, we will examine the potential for language maintenance over a two year period as we train patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementia on a carefully-crafted, personalized micro-lexicon consisting of approximately 100 words. Patients will train on this highly constrained vocabulary via a combination of repeated naming and semantic feature generation. This treatment approach is unique in that it protects a finite lexicon against loss rather than training forgotten concepts ad hoc as disease severity worsens. We will examine correlations between regional cerebral gray matter, neuropsychological performance, and language retention across time via pre/post structural neuroimaging and repeated administration of a comprehensive cognitive battery.
Specific Aim 2 represents a complementary investigation of the nature of the mechanisms underlying naming impairment in Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementia. We will investigate several aspects of visual search organization as participants name trained and untrained pictures. The high temporal resolution of eyetracking will yield essential insights into the relationships between visual search patterns, naming accuracy, and potential effect of treatment in these patient populations. We will also correlate these observed patterns of visual search with regional gray matter atrophy. We will contextualize these aims within the context of a broader model of semantic organization that correlates patterns of semantic impairment and learning in these clinical populations.

Public Health Relevance

Dementia represents one of the most significant public health challenges facing society today, and language impairment is among its most functionally debilitating symptoms. We propose a treatment that targets preservation of personalized, highly functional vocabulary in two major dementia subtypes (i.e., Alzheimer's Disease and Semantic Dementia). We will examine cognitive and neurological predictors of a positive treatment response in these populations. This work offers an essential step forward in managing communication impairments and prolonging functional independence for millions of Americans.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC013063-03
Application #
8998016
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
2014-02-01
Project End
2019-01-31
Budget Start
2016-02-01
Budget End
2017-01-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Temple University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
057123192
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19122
Binney, Richard J; Zuckerman, Bonnie M; Waller, Hilary N et al. (2018) Cathodal tDCS of the bilateral anterior temporal lobes facilitates semantically-driven verbal fluency. Neuropsychologia 111:62-71
Rycroft, Sarah Seligman; Giovannetti, Tania; Shipley, Thomas F et al. (2018) Windows to functional decline: Naturalistic eye movements in older and younger adults. Psychol Aging 33:1215-1222
Binney, Richard J; Ashaie, Sameer A; Zuckerman, Bonnie M et al. (2018) Frontotemporal stimulation modulates semantically-guided visual search during confrontation naming: A combined tDCS and eye tracking investigation. Brain Lang 180-182:14-23
Primativo, Silvia; Reilly, Jamie; Crutch, Sebastian J (2017) Abstract Conceptual Feature Ratings Predict Gaze Within Written Word Arrays: Evidence From a Visual Wor(l)d Paradigm. Cogn Sci 41:659-685
Troche, Joshua; Crutch, Sebastian J; Reilly, Jamie (2017) Defining a Conceptual Topography of Word Concreteness: Clustering Properties of Emotion, Sensation, and Magnitude among 750 English Words. Front Psychol 8:1787
Binney, Richard J; Zuckerman, Bonnie; Reilly, Jamie (2016) A Neuropsychological Perspective on Abstract Word Representation: From Theory to Treatment of Acquired Language Disorders. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 16:79
Cousins, Katheryn A Q; York, Collin; Bauer, Laura et al. (2016) Cognitive and anatomic double dissociation in the representation of concrete and abstract words in semantic variant and behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration. Neuropsychologia 84:244-51
Reilly, Jamie; Peelle, Jonathan E; Garcia, Amanda et al. (2016) Linking somatic and symbolic representation in semantic memory: the dynamic multilevel reactivation framework. Psychon Bull Rev 23:1002-14
Reilly, Jamie; Garcia, Amanda; Binney, Richard J (2016) Does the sound of a barking dog activate its corresponding visual form? An fMRI investigation of modality-specific semantic access. Brain Lang 159:45-59
Reilly, Jamie (2016) How to constrain and maintain a lexicon for the treatment of progressive semantic naming deficits: Principles of item selection for formal semantic therapy. Neuropsychol Rehabil 26:126-56

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