University of Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
University Hospital of Cabuenes, Cabuenes, Spain.
Curr Alzheimer Res. 2020;17(9):845-857. doi: 10.2174/1567205017666201204162837.
Although some studies suggest that writing difficulties may be one of the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD), they have been scarcely studied compared to oral language. Particularly noteworthy is the paucity of longitudinal studies that enable the observation of writing impairment as cognitive decline progresses.
The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of writing in patients with AD and to monitor the deterioration of their performance over a follow-up period.
Sixty-four participants (half with AD and half healthy elderly) were compared in a word and pseudo-word dictation task. Patients were evaluated every 6 months over a 2.5 year follow-up period.
The evolution of patient performance and error profile shows a typical pattern of deterioration, with early damage to the lexical pathway, which later extends to the phonological pathway and eventually affects peripheral processes.
These results confirm the presence of writing difficulties from the early stages of AD, supporting the value of this task for early diagnosis. Furthermore, it allows us to explain the contradictory data obtained in previous investigations.
尽管一些研究表明，书写困难可能是阿尔茨海默病（AD）的早期症状之一，但与口语语言相比，对其的研究甚少。特别值得注意的是，缺乏能够观察到认知能力下降过程中书写障碍的纵向研究。
本研究旨在检查 AD 患者的书写特点，并监测其在随访期间的表现恶化情况。
在单词和假词听写任务中比较了 64 名参与者（一半为 AD 患者，一半为健康老年人）。在 2.5 年的随访期间，患者每 6 个月接受一次评估。
患者表现和错误模式的演变显示出典型的恶化模式，早期损害词汇通路，随后扩展到语音通路，最终影响外周过程。
这些结果证实了 AD 早期存在书写困难，支持了该任务用于早期诊断的价值。此外，它还可以解释之前调查中获得的相互矛盾的数据。
