Sentence comprehension in Parkinson's disease: The role of attention and memory

摘要: Sentence comprehension is a complex process involving at least attentional, memory, grammatical, and semantic components. We report three experiments designed to evaluate the impairments underlying sentence difficulties in nondemented patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). In first experiment, we asked answer simple questions about sentences which varied terms of grammatical complexity constraint. found that PD are significantly compromised their ability perform this task. Their became more prominent as increased, but they were assisted by constraints limited possible interpretations sentence. Analyses individual patient profiles revealed heterogeneous performance across group somewhat inconsistent for testing sessions. second tested possibility patients' on task due an impairment memory or attention, cognitive domains known be some patients. Although control subjects differed one measure, there no significant correlations between attention results final manipulated used experiment fashion stressed need The indicated attend certain critical features A regression analysis identified specific semantic, attentional mechanisms contributors overall comprehension, accounting over 97% variance performance. conclude multiple sources difficulty impairment.