Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behavior, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2013 Feb;19(2):119-26. doi: 10.1017/S1355617712001178. Epub 2012 Dec 14.
The aim of this study was to determine whether naming difficulties arise in individuals as young as their 50s. Participants of 25-35, 50-59, 60-69, and above 70 years of age were given a picture naming task. To uncover subtle naming difficulties, latencies were analyzed in addition to accuracy. To control whether the expected slower naming latencies could be due to a general slowing affecting all cognitive tasks, participants were also given an odd/even judgment task to assess cognitive processing speed. The results confirmed that participants in their 50s presented decline in naming performance, reflected by an increase in naming latencies, whereas adults in their 60s and their 70s showed both a decrease in accuracy and an increase in latency. Moreover, the increase in naming latencies remained significant even after controlling for odd/even judgment latencies, suggesting a degradation specific to the picture naming task. We assumed that these slower latencies may result from a language-specific impairment. As a further test for language-specific degradation, participants' semantic capacities were also assessed with a synonym judgment task and the Pyramids and Palm Trees test. The above-70 group showed semantic degradation. The contributions of multiple factors to naming difficulties in aging are discussed.
本研究旨在确定命名困难是否会在 50 多岁的个体中出现。研究分别对 25-35 岁、50-59 岁、60-69 岁以及 70 岁以上的参与者进行了图片命名任务。为了揭示细微的命名困难，除了准确性之外，还分析了延迟。为了控制预期的较慢命名延迟是否是由于影响所有认知任务的一般减速，可以通过奇数/偶数判断任务来评估认知处理速度，从而控制这种情况。结果证实，50 多岁的参与者在命名表现上出现了下降，这反映在命名延迟的增加上，而 60 多岁和 70 多岁的成年人则表现出准确性下降和延迟增加。此外，即使控制了奇数/偶数判断延迟，命名延迟的增加仍然具有显著性，这表明仅在图片命名任务中存在退化。我们假设这些较慢的延迟可能是由于特定于语言的损伤所致。作为语言特异性退化的进一步测试，还通过同义词判断任务和 Pyramids and Palm Trees 测试评估了参与者的语义能力。70 岁以上的组显示出语义退化。讨论了多种因素对衰老中命名困难的贡献。
