Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
J Parkinsons Dis. 2015;5(2):403-11. doi: 10.3233/JPD-140476.
Models of basal ganglia (BG) function suggest that expressive language deficits will likely and consistently present in BG disease. Disparities currently exist between the predictions of models of BG function in expressive language and data from studies of BG disease. Traditional expressive language assessment methodologies that emphasize measures of language form (word and sentence productivity) while not carefully considering how language is used, may only partially account for these disparities.
To use measures of cohesion to examine the use of cohesive markers in narrative discourse.
Twelve individuals with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) were compared to 12 matched neurologically intact controls on measures of discourse performance. Three discourse samples (typical day, memorable vacation and family) were analyzed for measures of narrative productivity, number of cohesive ties and cohesive adequacy. Mixed model analyses were completed for group comparisons.
Group differences were not observed on measures of language form as measured by narrative productivity, communication units, and number of cohesive ties produced. In contrast, group differences were observed in cohesive adequacy as individuals with PD produced a higher percentage of incomplete and erroneous cohesive ties relative the control subjects across narratives.
These results support the conclusion that the BG in PD may have an executive role in expressive language use that can be disrupted without impacting language form.
基底神经节（BG）功能模型表明，表达性语言缺陷很可能在 BG 疾病中持续存在。目前，BG 功能模型对表达性语言的预测与 BG 疾病研究的数据之间存在差异。传统的强调语言形式（单词和句子生成）的表达性语言评估方法，而没有仔细考虑语言的使用方式，可能只能部分解释这些差异。
使用衔接手段来检查叙事语篇中衔接标记的使用情况。
将 12 名特发性帕金森病（PD）患者与 12 名匹配的神经完整对照组在话语表现方面进行比较。对三个话语样本（典型的一天、难忘的假期和家庭）进行分析，以衡量叙事的生成能力、衔接纽带的数量和衔接的充分性。完成混合模型分析以进行组间比较。
在语言形式的衡量标准上，如叙事生成能力、交际单位和生成的衔接纽带数量上，两组之间没有观察到差异。相比之下，在衔接充分性方面，PD 患者在三个叙事中产生的不完整和错误的衔接纽带百分比均高于对照组。
这些结果支持 PD 中的 BG 可能在表达性语言使用中具有执行作用的结论，而这种作用可能会在不影响语言形式的情况下受到干扰。
