Discourse Production in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

South, Angela and Orange, J.B. (2010) Discourse Production in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). [Clinical Aphasiology Paper]

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Abstract

Cognitive deficits and word retrieval deficits have been identified in individuals with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Few studies to date have focused on word retrieval deficits and language efficiency within discourse production. The current study investigated discourse production in 15 ALS and 12 age-matched controls. The two discourse elicitation tasks were a picture description and Topic Directed Interview (TDI). A significant interaction of group by task is reported. Significant group effects for types of instances of word finding problems within each task are also reported. Results suggest that ALS have reduced language efficiency in discourse suggestive of semantic access difficulties.

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