ABSTRACT
A growing interest in cognition in aging has been observed because of both the epidemiologic factor of an increase in the lifespan of the world's population and the cognitive changes behaviorally and biologically detectable in this population. The most complex of language components and fundamental in social interaction, discourse production and comprehension are among the most scarcely explored cognitive functions in this context. This review presents and discusses discourse processing in healthy aging with regard to theoretical, behavioral, and neuroimaging evidence. Cognitive and neurobiological models are reviewed, such as the Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD) model and the Posterior-Anterior Shift in Aging (PASA) model. Among the neuropsycholinguistic research developed to characterize discourse processing in aging individuals, which has contributed to the prevention and treatment of language impairment and the maintenance of communicative competence in aging, studies on the relationship between discourse and working memory, attention, and some executive components are discussed. Regarding neuroimaging data, very few studies that have included cognitive tasks and discourse stimuli were found. Such studies suggest that discourse processing requires not only the participation of both brain hemispheres, but also a more prominent activation of frontal regions. Considering the great complexity and usefulness of discourse in elderly adults' daily communication and the emergence of cognitive deficits related to aging in complex information processing, the necessity of further behavioral and neuroimaging studies, including discourse processing tasks, comparing tasks involving executive, attentional, and mnemonic demands becomes evident.
Subject(s)
Humans , Aging , Cognitive Science , Communication , NeuropsychologyABSTRACT
A growing interest in cognition in aging has been observed because of both the epidemiologic factor of an increase in the lifespan of the world's population and the cognitive changes behaviorally and biologically detectable in this population. The most complex of language components and fundamental in social interaction, discourse production and comprehension are among the most scarcely explored cognitive functions in this context. This review presents and discusses discourse processing in healthy aging with regard to theoretical, behavioral, and neuroimaging evidence. Cognitive and neurobiological models are reviewed, such as the Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD) model and the Posterior-Anterior Shift in Aging (PASA) model. Among the neuropsycholinguistic research developed to characterize discourse processing in aging individuals, which has contributed to the prevention and treatment of language impairment and the maintenance of communicative competence in aging, studies on the relationship between discourse and working memory, attention, and some executive components are discussed. Regarding neuroimaging data, very few studies that have included cognitive tasks and discourse stimuli were found. Such studies suggest that discourse processing requires not only the participation of both brain hemispheres, but also a more prominent activation of frontal regions. Considering the great complexity and usefulness of discourse in elderly adults' daily communication and the emergence of cognitive deficits related to aging in complex information processing, the necessity of further behavioral and neuroimaging studies, including discourse processing tasks, comparing tasks involving executive, attentional, and mnemonic demands becomes evident.(AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Neuropsychology , Communication , Aging , Cognitive ScienceABSTRACT
Este estudo propos-se a buscar caminhos alternativos e analisar variaveis ligadas aos modos de producao do conhecimento linguistico, que possam fornecer intuicoes sobre a forma como a crianca vai se assenhorando das funcoes e valores do objeto cultural escrita, em seu proprio meio cultural, atraves de textos tipicos de atividades sociais comuns em seu dia-a-dia: (1) estabelecendo um quadro de estrategias de comportamento frente a escrita que expresse sensibilidade metadiscurtiva e/ou consciencia metalinguistica e (2) detectando diferencas entre as estrategias utilizadas por criancas de 5, 7 e 8 anos. O instrumento utilizado no estudo foi um protocolo pragmatico constituido de uma entrevista semi-estruturada composta de perguntas sobre as experiencias anteriores dos sujeitos com a lingua escrita (reconhecimento de portadores textuais) e sobre os julgamentos emitidos a respeito do por que e para que da utlizacao de dados textos em dadas situacoes, isto e, sobre sua funcionalidade. A hipotese que norteou a pesquisa e a de que a maior ou menor familiaridade com a escrita facilita e propicia a emergencia gradativa da sensibilidade metadiscursiva e, posteriormente, da consciencia metalinguistica sobre os usos e valores sociais atribuidos ao texto escrito. Quinze criancas participaram da pesquisa tendo cinco delas 5 anos, cinco 7 e cinco anos e frequentemente, respectivamente, a Pre-Escola, primeira e segunda series do I grau. Os resultados demonstraram haver diferencas de modo de concepcao entre os tres grupos etarios, tendo corroborado estudos anteriormente feitos.
