Objective
Linguistic problem is common in
Huntington's disease (HD)
patients. It has been studied before in native speakers of alphabetic
languages, such as English. As a hieroglyphic
language,
Chinese differs from alphabetic
languages in terms of phonology, morphology,
semantics and syntax. We aimed to investigate the
linguistic characteristics of manifest HD in native speakers of Mandarin. Meanwhile, we expected to explore the
linguistic differences associated with cortical or subcortical
pathology.
Methods Five HD
patients and five
Alzheimer's disease (AD)
patients matched in age,
gender,
disease course and
educational level were enrolled. All the participants were Mandarin native speakers. All finished
history inquiry,
physical examination, basic test, genetic test and neuropsychological assessment.
Language evaluation was performed by
Aphasia Battery of
Chinese.Results HD
patients had a mean
disease course of 5.4±2.97 (range, 2-10) years. They showed a
linguistic disorder close to transcortical
motor aphasia. They exhibited prominent
phonological impairment, as well as slight
semantic and syntactic abnormality. Tonic errors were found in
speech.
Character structural errors and substitutions were detected in
writing. In comparison, AD
patients showed a more severe
linguistic impairment, characterized by
global aphasia with more
semantic errors. Conclusion Mandarin-speaking HD
patients have a transcortical
motor aphasia-like disturbance with prominent
phonological impairment, whereas AD
patients have a more severe
global aphasia with salient
semantic impairment.