Relationship between Alzheimer's disease and non-verbal listening comprehension obstacle / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the relationship between Alzheimer's disease(AD)and nonverbal listening comprehension obstacle,and to observe the different specific performance of AD patients in the non-verbal listening comprehension tests involving music and non-verbal semantics,in order to identify the yalue of these tests in the differential diagnosis of AD.Methods The internalized 104 subjects meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria were divided into 4 groups of normal group(n =24),a-MCI group(amnesia-mild cognitive impairment,n =30),mild-AD group (n =27) and moderate AD group (n =23).All subjects received a series of central non-verbal listening comprehension tests which were scored and evaluated,including categorizing and naming according to the sound which involved the non-verbal semantic aspect,judging the emotion and rhythm according to the melody which involved the music aspect.Then the scores were analyzed.Mini-mental state examination(MMSE)and Montreal cognitive assessment(MoCA) were used for assessing the degrees of cognitive impairment.Results All test scores had a positive moderate to high correlations with MMSE and MoCA(all r＞0.4,P＜0.01),in which sound classification and nomination had better positive correlations than other tests.The statistically significant differences were found in all tests among the four groups(all P＜0.05).There was a significant difference in sound nomination between a-MCI group and normal group(P＜ 0.05).There were significant differences in sound classification,nomination and judging melody rhythm between mild AD group and normal group or a-MCI group (both P ＜0.05).There were significant differences in all tests between moderate AD group and normal group or a-MCI group (both P ＜ 0.05).The sound classification tests,especially sound nomination tests,had better diagnostic value than the rhythm and emotion judgment tests for identifying AD.Conclusions Patients with AD,even with a-MCI,can develop the non-verbal listening comprehension obstacle,which is aggravated along with the exacerbation of cognitive impairment.AD patient's semantic aspect-involving non-verbal listening ability degeneration is faster than involving the music aspect.Non-verbal listening comprehension tests involving non-verbal semantic aspect,especially sound nomination tests,have better diagnostic values.