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Clarke AJ, Manser D, Fleischer R, Fulham M, Ahmed RM. Pearls & Oy-sters: Huntington Disease Presenting as Primary Progressive Aphasia: A Case of Semantics. Neurology 2023; 101:414-417. [PMID: 37202171 PMCID: PMC10501099 DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000207428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/20/2023] Open
Abstract
We present a case of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia as the presenting feature in a patient with Huntington disease (HD). The patient initially developed progressive language impairment including impaired naming and object knowledge and single-word comprehension and then developed chorea and behavioral changes. An MRI of the brain showed left anterior temporal lobe and hippocampal atrophy. A neurologic FDG PET/CT showed reduced metabolism in the head of the left caudate nucleus. Huntingtin gene testing revealed an expansion of 39 CAG repeats in 1 allele. This case outlines the substantial overlap between the clinical presentation of HD and frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes and provides commentary on the investigation of these neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia J Clarke
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia.
| | - David Manser
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Ronald Fleischer
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Michael Fulham
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Rebekah M Ahmed
- From the Faculty of Medicine and Health (A.J.C., R.M.A.), University of Sydney; Department of Neurology (A.J.C., D.M., M.F., R.M.A.), Genetics Department (R.F.), and Department of Molecular Imaging (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (M.F.), University of Sydney, Australia
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2
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Miranda M, Campo CG, Birba A, Neely A, Hernandez FDT, Faure E, Costa GR, Ibáñez A, García A. An action-concept processing advantage in a patient with a double motor cortex. Brain Cogn 2022; 156:105831. [PMID: 34922210 PMCID: PMC9944406 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2021.105831] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 12/06/2021] [Accepted: 12/07/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Patients with atrophy in motor brain regions exhibit selective deficits in processing action-related meanings, suggesting a link between movement conceptualization and the amount of regional tissue. Here we examine such a relation in a unique opposite model: a rare patient with a double cortex (due to subcortical band heterotopia) in primary/supplementary motor regions, and no double cortex in multimodal semantic regions. We measured behavioral performance in action- and object-concept processing as well and resting-state functional connectivity. Both dimensions involved comparisons with healthy controls. Results revealed preserved accuracy in action and object categories for the patient. However, unlike controls, the patient exhibited faster performance for action than object concepts, a difference that was uninfluenced by general cognitive abilities. Moreover, this pattern was accompanied by heightened functional connectivity between the bilateral primary motor cortices. This suggests that a functionally active double motor cortex may entail action-processing advantages. Our findings offer new constraints for models of action semantics and motor-region function at large.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Miranda
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina,Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Cecilia Gonzalez Campo
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina,Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustina Birba
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina,Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina,Latin American Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
| | - Alejandra Neely
- Latin American Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Evelyng Faure
- Department of Radiology, Clínica las Condes, Santiago, Chile,Advanced Epilepsy Center, Clínica las Condes, Santiago, Chile
| | - Gonzalo Rojas Costa
- Department of Radiology, Clínica las Condes, Santiago, Chile,Advanced Epilepsy Center, Clínica las Condes, Santiago, Chile,Health Innovation Center, Clínica las Condes, Santiago, Chile
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina,Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina,Latin American Brain Health (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile,Global Brain Health Institute, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, California, and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Adolfo García
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cognitive Neuroscience Center, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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3
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Structural and functional motor-network disruptions predict selective action-concept deficits: Evidence from frontal lobe epilepsy. Cortex 2021; 144:43-55. [PMID: 34637999 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2020] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Built on neurodegenerative lesions models, the disrupted motor grounding hypothesis (DMGH) posits that motor-system alterations selectively impair action comprehension. However, major doubts remain concerning the dissociability, neural signatures, and etiological generalizability of such deficits. Few studies have compared action-concept outcomes between disorders affecting and sparing motor circuitry, and none has examined their multimodal network predictors via data-driven approaches. Here, we first assessed action- and object-concept processing in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE), patients with posterior cortex epilepsy (PCE), and healthy controls. Then, we examined structural and functional network signatures via diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state connectivity measures. Finally, we used these measures to predict behavioral performance with an XGBoost machine learning regression algorithm. Relative to controls, FLE (but not PCE) patients exhibited selective action-concept deficits together with structural and functional abnormalities along motor networks. The XGBoost model reached a significantly large effect size only for action-concept outcomes in FLE, mainly predicted by structural (cortico-spinal tract, anterior thalamic radiation, uncinate fasciculus) and functional (M1-parietal/supramarginal connectivity) motor networks. These results extend the DMGH, suggesting that action-concept deficits are dissociable markers of frontal/motor (relative to posterior) disruptions, directly related to the structural and functional integrity of motor networks, and traceable beyond canonical movement disorders.
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Suárez-García DMA, Birba A, Zimerman M, Diazgranados JA, Lopes da Cunha P, Ibáñez A, Grisales-Cárdenas JS, Cardona JF, García AM. Rekindling Action Language: A Neuromodulatory Study on Parkinson's Disease Patients. Brain Sci 2021; 11:887. [PMID: 34356122 PMCID: PMC8301982 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11070887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairments of action semantics (a cognitive domain that critically engages motor brain networks) are pervasive in early Parkinson's disease (PD). However, no study has examined whether action semantic skills in persons with this disease can be influenced by non-invasive neuromodulation. Here, we recruited 22 PD patients and performed a five-day randomized, blinded, sham-controlled study to assess whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) over the primary motor cortex, combined with cognitive training, can boost action-concept processing. On day 1, participants completed a picture-word association (PWA) task involving action-verb and object-noun conditions. They were then randomly assigned to either an atDCS (n = 11, 2 mA for 20 m) or a sham tDCS (n = 11, 2 mA for 30 s) group and performed an online PWA practice over three days. On day 5, they repeated the initial protocol. Relative to sham tDCS, the atDCS group exhibited faster reaction times for action (as opposed to object) concepts in the post-stimulation test. This result was exclusive to the atDCS group and held irrespective of the subjects' cognitive, executive, and motor skills, further attesting to its specificity. Our findings suggest that action-concept deficits in PD are distinctively grounded in motor networks and might be countered by direct neuromodulation of such circuits. Moreover, they provide new evidence for neurosemantic models and inform a thriving agenda in the embodied cognition framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana M. A. Suárez-García
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Agustina Birba
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
| | - Máximo Zimerman
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
| | - Jesús A. Diazgranados
- Centro Médico de Atención Neurológica “Neurólogos de Occidente”, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia;
| | - Pamela Lopes da Cunha
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), Buenos Aires C1425FQD, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
- Trinity College Dublin (TCD), D02R590 Dublin 2, Ireland
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 8320000, Chile
| | - Johan S. Grisales-Cárdenas
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Juan Felipe Cardona
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Adolfo M. García
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
- Trinity College Dublin (TCD), D02R590 Dublin 2, Ireland
- Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), Mendoza M5502GKA, Argentina
- Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9170020, Chile
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5
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Baez S, Herrera E, Trujillo C, Cardona JF, Diazgranados JA, Pino M, Santamaría-García H, Ibáñez A, García AM. Classifying Parkinson's Disease Patients With Syntactic and Socio-emotional Verbal Measures. Front Aging Neurosci 2020; 12:586233. [PMID: 33328964 PMCID: PMC7719774 DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2020.586233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 11/05/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Frontostriatal disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (PD), are characterized by progressive disruption of cortico-subcortical dopaminergic loops involved in diverse higher-order domains, including language. Indeed, syntactic and emotional language tasks have emerged as potential biomarkers of frontostriatal disturbances. However, relevant studies and models have typically considered these linguistic dimensions in isolation, overlooking the potential advantages of targeting multidimensional markers. Here, we examined whether patient classification can be improved through the joint assessment of both dimensions using sentential stimuli. We evaluated 31 early PD patients and 24 healthy controls via two syntactic measures (functional-role assignment, parsing of long-distance dependencies) and a verbal task tapping social emotions (envy, Schadenfreude) and compared their classification accuracy when analyzed in isolation and in combination. Complementarily, we replicated our approach to discriminate between patients on and off medication. Results showed that specific measures of each dimension were selectively impaired in PD. In particular, joint analysis of outcomes in functional-role assignment and Schadenfreude improved the classification accuracy of patients and controls, irrespective of their overall cognitive and affective state. These results suggest that multidimensional linguistic assessments may better capture the complexity and multi-functional impact of frontostriatal disruptions, highlighting their potential contributions in the ongoing quest for sensitive markers of PD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Baez
- Department of Psychology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Eduar Herrera
- Departamento de Estudios Psicológicos, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia
| | | | - Juan F. Cardona
- Instituto de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
| | | | - Mariana Pino
- Department of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia
| | - Hernando Santamaría-García
- Centro de Memoria y Cognición, Intellectus-Hospital Universitario San Ignacio, Bogotá, Colombia
- Department of Psychiatry-Physiology and Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Department of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile, Chile
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Adolfo M. García
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
- Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), Mendoza, Argentina
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6
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Eyigoz E, Courson M, Sedeño L, Rogg K, Orozco-Arroyave JR, Nöth E, Skodda S, Trujillo N, Rodríguez M, Rusz J, Muñoz E, Cardona JF, Herrera E, Hesse E, Ibáñez A, Cecchi G, García AM. From discourse to pathology: Automatic identification of Parkinson's disease patients via morphological measures across three languages. Cortex 2020; 132:191-205. [PMID: 32992069 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2019] [Revised: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Embodied cognition research on Parkinson's disease (PD) points to disruptions of frontostriatal language functions as sensitive targets for clinical assessment. However, no existing approach has been tested for crosslinguistic validity, let alone by combining naturalistic tasks with machine-learning tools. To address these issues, we conducted the first classifier-based examination of morphological processing (a core frontostriatal function) in spontaneous monologues from PD patients across three typologically different languages. The study comprised 330 participants, encompassing speakers of Spanish (61 patients, 57 matched controls), German (88 patients, 88 matched controls), and Czech (20 patients, 16 matched controls). All subjects described the activities they perform during a regular day, and their monologues were automatically coded via morphological tagging, a computerized method that labels each word with a part-of-speech tag (e.g., noun, verb) and specific morphological tags (e.g., person, gender, number, tense). The ensuing data were subjected to machine-learning analyses to assess whether differential morphological patterns could classify between patients and controls and reflect the former's degree of motor impairment. Results showed robust classification rates, with over 80% of patients being discriminated from controls in each language separately. Moreover, the most discriminative morphological features were associated with the patients' motor compromise (as indicated by Pearson r correlations between predicted and collected motor impairment scores that ranged from moderate to moderate-to-strong across languages). Taken together, our results suggest that morphological patterning, an embodied frontostriatal domain, may be distinctively affected in PD across languages and even under ecological testing conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elif Eyigoz
- IBM Research, T. J. Watson Research Center, New York, USA
| | - Melody Courson
- Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, CRIUGM Research Center, Montréal, Canada
| | - Lucas Sedeño
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Katharina Rogg
- Department of Social Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Juan Rafael Orozco-Arroyave
- Pattern Recognition Lab, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany; GITA Lab, Faculty of Engineering, University of Antioquia (UdeA), Medellín, Colombia
| | - Elmar Nöth
- Pattern Recognition Lab, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
| | - Sabine Skodda
- Department of Neurology, Knappschaftskrankenhaus, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Germany
| | - Natalia Trujillo
- Neuroscience Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Antioquia (UdeA), Medellín, Colombia; School of Public Health, University of Antioquia (UdeA), Medellín, Colombia
| | - Mabel Rodríguez
- National Institute of Mental Health, Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Jan Rusz
- Department of Circuit Theory, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Edinson Muñoz
- Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Juan F Cardona
- Instituto de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
| | - Eduar Herrera
- Departamento de Estudios Psicológicos, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia
| | - Eugenia Hesse
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia; Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile, Chile; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States
| | | | - Adolfo M García
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States; Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), Mendoza, Argentina.
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7
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Birba A, Vitale F, Padrón I, Dottori M, de Vega M, Zimerman M, Sedeño L, Ibáñez A, García AM. Electrifying discourse: Anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex selectively reduces action appraisal in naturalistic narratives. Cortex 2020; 132:460-472. [PMID: 32950239 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2020] [Revised: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Non-invasive stimulation of the primary motor cortex (M1) modulates processing of decontextualized action words and sentences (i.e., verbal units denoting bodily motion). This suggests that language comprehension hinges on brain circuits mediating the bodily experiences evoked by verbal material. Yet, despite its relevance to constrain mechanistic language models, such a finding fails to reveal whether and how relevant circuits operate in the face of full-blown, everyday texts. Using a novel naturalistic discourse paradigm, we examined whether direct modulation of M1 excitability influences the grasping of narrated actions. Following random group assignment, participants received anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left M1, or sham stimulation of the same area, or anodal stimulation of the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Immediately afterwards, they listened to action-laden and neutral stories and answered questions on information realized by verbs (denoting action and non-action processes) and circumstances (conveying locative or temporal details). Anodal stimulation of the left M1 selectively decreased outcomes on action-relative to non-action information -a pattern that discriminated between stimulated and sham participants with 74% accuracy. This result was particular to M1 and held irrespective of the subjects' working memory and vocabulary skills, further attesting to its specificity. Our findings suggest that offline modulation of motor-network excitability might lead to transient unavailability of putative resources needed to evoke actions in naturalistic texts, opening promising avenues for the language embodiment framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agustina Birba
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Francesca Vitale
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia (IUNE), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Iván Padrón
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia (IUNE), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Martín Dottori
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Manuel de Vega
- Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia (IUNE), Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
| | - Máximo Zimerman
- Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Lucas Sedeño
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (CSCN), School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile, Chile; Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States
| | - Adolfo M García
- Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, Argentina; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Global Brain Health Institute, University of California, San Francisco, United States; Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina; Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
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8
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Tovar A, Garí Soler A, Ruiz-Idiago J, Mareca Viladrich C, Pomarol-Clotet E, Rosselló J, Hinzen W. Language disintegration in spontaneous speech in Huntington's disease: a more fine-grained analysis. JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS 2020; 83:105970. [PMID: 32062158 DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2019.105970] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2018] [Revised: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 12/01/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease causing motor symptoms along with cognitive and affective problems. Recent evidence suggests that HD also affects language across core levels of linguistic organization, including at stages of the disease when standardized neuropsychological test profiles are still normal and motor symptoms do not yet reach clinical thresholds ('pre-manifest HD'). The present study aimed to subject spontaneous speech to a more fine-grained linguistic analysis in a sample of 20 identified HD gene-carriers, 10 with pre-manifest and 10 with early manifest HD. We further explored how language performance related to non-linguistic cognitive impairment, using standardized neuropsychological measures. A distinctive pattern of linguistic impairments marked off participants with both pre-manifest and manifest HD from healthy controls and each other. Fluency patterns in premanifest HD were marked by prolongations, filled pauses, and repetitions, which shifted to a pattern marked by empty (unfilled) pauses, re-phrasings, and truncations in manifest HD. Both HD groups also significantly differed from controls and each other in how they grammatically connected clauses and used noun phrases referentially. Functional deficits in language occurred in pre-manifest HD in the absence of any non-linguistic neuropsychological impairment and did largely not correlate with standardized neuropsychological measures in manifest HD. These results further corroborate that language can act as a fine-grained clinical marker in HD, which can track disease progression from the pre-manifest stage, define critical remediation targets, and inform the role of the basal ganglia in language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonia Tovar
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Jesús Ruiz-Idiago
- Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Celia Mareca Viladrich
- Neuropsychiatry Unit, Hospital Mare de Déu de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Joana Rosselló
- Department of Catalan Philology and General Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Wolfram Hinzen
- Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries Research Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies), Barcelona, Spain.
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9
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Too late to be grounded? Motor resonance for action words acquired after middle childhood. Brain Cogn 2019; 138:105509. [PMID: 31855702 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.105509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Revised: 11/23/2019] [Accepted: 12/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Though well established for languages acquired in infancy, the role of embodied mechanisms remains poorly understood for languages learned in middle childhood and adulthood. To bridge this gap, we examined 34 experiments that assessed sensorimotor resonance during processing of action-related words in real and artificial languages acquired since age 7 and into adulthood. Evidence from late bilinguals indicates that foreign-language action words modulate neural activity in motor circuits and predictably facilitate or delay physical movements (even in an effector-specific fashion), with outcomes that prove partly sensitive to language proficiency. Also, data from newly learned vocabularies suggest that embodied effects emerge after brief periods of adult language exposure, remain stable through time, and hinge on the performance of bodily movements (and, seemingly, on action observation, too). In sum, our work shows that infant language exposure is not indispensable for the recruitment of embodied mechanisms during language processing, a finding that carries non-trivial theoretical, pedagogical, and clinical implications for neurolinguistics, in general, and bilingualism research, in particular.
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Humphries S, Klooster N, Cardillo E, Weintraub D, Rick J, Chatterjee A. From action to abstraction: The sensorimotor grounding of metaphor in Parkinson's disease. Cortex 2019; 121:362-384. [PMID: 31678683 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.09.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2019] [Accepted: 09/06/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Embodied cognition theories propose that the semantic representations engaged in during language comprehension are partly supported by perceptual and motor systems, via simulation. Activation in modality-specific regions of cortex is associated with the comprehension of literal language that describes the analogous modalities, but studies addressing the grounding of non-literal or figurative language, such as metaphors, have yielded mixed results. Differences in the psycholinguistic characteristics of sentence stimuli across studies have likely contributed to this lack of consensus. Furthermore, previous studies have been largely correlational, whilst patient studies are a critical way of determining if intact sensorimotor function is necessary to understand language drawing on sensorimotor information. We designed a battery of metaphorical and literal sentence stimuli using action and sound words, with an unprecedented level of control over critical psycholinguistic variables, to test hypotheses about the grounding of metaphorical language. In this Registered Report, we assessed the comprehension of these sentences in 41 patients with Parkinson's disease, who were predicted to be disproportionately affected by the action sentences relative to the sound sentences, and compared their performance to that of 39 healthy age-matched controls who were predicted to show no difference in performance due to sensory modality. Using preregistered Bayesian model comparison methods, we found that PD patients' comprehension of literal action sentences was not impaired, while there was some evidence for a slowing of responses to action metaphors. Follow up exploratory analyses suggest that this response time modality effect was driven by one type of metaphor (predicate) and was absent in another (nominal), despite the fact that the action semantics were similar in both syntactic forms. These results suggest that the conditions under which PD patients demonstrate hypothesized embodiment effects are limited. We offer a critical assessment of the PD action language literature and discuss implications for the embodiment debate. In addition, we suggest how future studies could leverage Bayesian statistical methods to provide more convincing evidence for or against embodied cognition effects.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE A systematic review examining the presence and nature of language disorders associated with Huntington disease (HD). BACKGROUND HD is characterized by gradual motor dysfunction, psychiatric problems, and cognitive decline. Communication abilities in HD may be affected not only by dysarthria but also by language impairment. However, the nature and type of this impairment is not well defined. METHODS We searched the PubMed and PsycINFO databases and selected studies on the basis of the original language of the article, peer-review status, and specificity of the results regarding language and communication disorders. RESULTS Thirty-one articles meeting the selection criteria were selected for this review. According to most of the studies, individuals with HD present with primary deficits of language. However, a few authors suggested that language deficits in HD result from nonlinguistic impairments, or that language abilities are largely preserved. More specifically, studies showed that HD is associated with difficulties in producing and understanding sentences and discourse, processing semantic representations of object and action concepts, retrieving lexical forms of nouns, and applying morphological and syntactic rules. There is some disagreement regarding whether HD affects reading abilities, sentence production, semantic processing, and application of morphological rules in verb conjugation. CONCLUSIONS Although people with HD present with language impairment, further studies are needed to identify their functional origin. Clinical studies are also needed to determine the impact of such impairments on an individual's functional communication in daily living and to chart the progression of the impairments over the course of the disease.
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Steeb B, García-Cordero I, Huizing MC, Collazo L, Borovinsky G, Ferrari J, Cuitiño MM, Ibáñez A, Sedeño L, García AM. Progressive Compromise of Nouns and Action Verbs in Posterior Cortical Atrophy. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1345. [PMID: 30123155 PMCID: PMC6085559 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Accepted: 07/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Processing of nouns and action verbs can be differentially compromised following lesions to posterior and anterior/motor brain regions, respectively. However, little is known about how these deficits progress in the course of neurodegeneration. To address this issue, we assessed productive lexical skills in a patient with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) at two different stages of his pathology. On both occasions, he underwent a structural brain imaging protocol and completed semantic fluency tasks requiring retrieval of animals (nouns) and actions (verbs). Imaging results were compared with those of controls via voxel-based morphometry (VBM), whereas fluency performance was compared to age-matched norms through Crawford's t-tests. In the first assessment, the patient exhibited atrophy of more posterior regions supporting multimodal semantics (medial temporal and lingual gyri), together with a selective deficit in noun fluency. Then, by the second assessment, the patient's atrophy had progressed mainly toward fronto-motor regions (rolandic operculum, inferior and superior frontal gyri) and subcortical motor hubs (cerebellum, thalamus), and his fluency impairments had extended to action verbs. These results offer unprecedented evidence of the specificity of the pathways related to noun and action-verb impairments in the course of neurodegeneration, highlighting the latter's critical dependence on damage to regions supporting motor functions, as opposed to multimodal semantic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brenda Steeb
- Laboratory of Language Research (LILEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Indira García-Cordero
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Marjolein C Huizing
- Laboratory of Language Research (LILEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Lucas Collazo
- Laboratory of Language Research (LILEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Geraldine Borovinsky
- Laboratory of Language Research (LILEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Jesica Ferrari
- Department of Language Speech, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Macarena M Cuitiño
- Laboratory of Language Research (LILEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Faculty of Psychology, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia.,Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile, Chile.,Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Lucas Sedeño
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Adolfo M García
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCYT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
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13
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Cervetto S, Abrevaya S, Martorell Caro M, Kozono G, Muñoz E, Ferrari J, Sedeño L, Ibáñez A, García AM. Action Semantics at the Bottom of the Brain: Insights From Dysplastic Cerebellar Gangliocytoma. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1194. [PMID: 30050490 PMCID: PMC6052139 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2018] [Accepted: 06/20/2018] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent embodied cognition research shows that access to action verbs in shallow-processing tasks becomes selectively compromised upon atrophy of the cerebellum, a critical motor region. Here we assessed whether cerebellar damage also disturbs explicit semantic processing of action pictures and its integration with ongoing motor responses. We evaluated a cognitively preserved 33-year-old man with severe dysplastic cerebellar gangliocytoma (Lhermitte-Duclos disease), encompassing most of the right cerebellum and the posterior part of the left cerebellum. The patient and eight healthy controls completed two semantic association tasks (involving pictures of objects and actions, respectively) that required motor responses. Accuracy results via Crawford’s modified t-tests revealed that the patient was selectively impaired in action association. Moreover, reaction-time analysis through Crawford’s Revised Standardized Difference Test showed that, while processing of action concepts involved slower manual responses in controls, no such effect was observed in the patient, suggesting that motor-semantic integration dynamics may be compromised following cerebellar damage. Notably, a Bayesian Test for a Deficit allowing for Covariates revealed that these patterns remained after covarying for executive performance, indicating that they were not secondary to extra-linguistic impairments. Taken together, our results extend incipient findings on the embodied functions of the cerebellum, offering unprecedented evidence of its crucial role in processing non-verbal action meanings and integrating them with concomitant movements. These findings illuminate the relatively unexplored semantic functions of this region while calling for extensions of motor cognition models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabrina Cervetto
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Departamento de Educación Física y Salud, Instituto Superior de Educación Física, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
| | - Sofía Abrevaya
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Miguel Martorell Caro
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Giselle Kozono
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Edinson Muñoz
- Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | - Jesica Ferrari
- Neuropsychiatry Department, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Lucas Sedeño
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia.,Center for Social and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago de Chile, Chile.,Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council (ARC), Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Adolfo M García
- Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience, INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
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García AM, Bocanegra Y, Herrera E, Moreno L, Carmona J, Baena A, Lopera F, Pineda D, Melloni M, Legaz A, Muñoz E, Sedeño L, Baez S, Ibáñez A. Parkinson's disease compromises the appraisal of action meanings evoked by naturalistic texts. Cortex 2018; 100:111-126. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2017] [Revised: 05/24/2017] [Accepted: 07/04/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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15
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García AM, Ibáñez A. When embodiment breaks down: Language deficits as novel avenues into movement disorders. Cortex 2018; 100:1-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2017] [Revised: 12/14/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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