Department of Speech and Language Pathology, College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea.
Division of Speech Pathology, Lee Rehabilitation Clinic, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
PLoS One. 2020 Sep 18;15(9):e0239327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239327. eCollection 2020.
In older adults with subjective memory complaints (SMCs), featuring a decline in memory but not exhibiting problems during medical examinations and objective memory tests, the weak links between nodes evident in the word retrieval process can be a primary factor for predicting mild cognitive impairment and dementia. This study examined the frequency of the "Tip-of-the-Tongue" (ToT) phenomenon according to age and subjective memory complaints of older adults, and identified differences in the resolution method using sequential cues. A celebrity naming task was performed on older adults (aged 50 to 79) with SMCs (n = 30) and without SMCs (n = 30), comparing the frequency of the ToT phenomenon and in resolution methods. We found that, even if our subjects with SMCs obtained normal results in the objective neuropsychology test, they experienced a significantly higher frequency of the ToT phenomenon than those without SMCs. In addition, subjects with SMCs showed a significantly lower rate of resolution, both spontaneous and following a syllabic cue, compared to those without SMCs. SMCs can be a very early marker of degenerative diseases causing cognitive dysfunction, and thus the selection of appropriate tools for early detection of SMCs is important. The proper naming task may sensitively detect subclinical symptoms of SMCs in subjects who are not classified as patients with cognitive impairments on general neuropsychological test. In addition, this task can identify weak connections between semantic and phonological nodes due to changes in the neural region of older adults with SMCs.
在有主观记忆抱怨（SMC）的老年人中，记忆下降但在医学检查和客观记忆测试中没有表现出问题，单词检索过程中节点之间的弱连接可能是预测轻度认知障碍和痴呆的一个主要因素。本研究根据老年人的年龄和主观记忆抱怨检查了“舌尖现象”（ToT）现象的频率，并确定了使用顺序提示时的解决方法差异。对有 SMC（n=30）和无 SMC（n=30）的老年人进行了名人命名任务，比较了 ToT 现象的频率和解决方法。我们发现，即使我们有 SMC 的受试者在客观神经心理学测试中获得了正常的结果，他们经历的 ToT 现象频率明显高于无 SMC 的受试者。此外，与无 SMC 的受试者相比，有 SMC 的受试者无论是自发的还是在音节提示后，解决问题的比例明显更低。SMC 可能是导致认知功能障碍的退行性疾病的一个非常早期的标志物，因此选择适当的工具来早期发现 SMC 非常重要。正确的命名任务可能会在一般神经心理学测试中未被归类为认知障碍患者的受试者中敏感地检测到 SMC 的亚临床症状。此外，该任务可以识别由于 SMC 老年人的神经区域变化而导致语义和语音节点之间的弱连接。
