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PubMed2003

Outcome in high-functioning adults with autism with and without early language delays: implications for the differentiation between autism and Asperger syndrome.

The question of whether Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism should be considered as the same or different conditions has been a source of debate and controversy over recent years. In the present study, 34 adults with autism who had shown early delays in language were compared with 42 individuals who were reported to have had no such delays, either in their use of words or phrases. All participants were at least 18 years of age, had a nonverbal IQ of 70 or above and met ADI-R criteria for age of onset, communication and social impairments, and stereotyped behaviors. Those in the language delay group were diagnosed as having high-functioning autism. The remainder were designated as having Asperger syndrome. The groups were matched for age, nonverbal IQ and gender. No significant differences were found between the groups either in their total ADI-R algorithm scores, or in their algorithm scores on individual domains. Social outcome ratings and ADI-R scores based on current functioning also failed to differentiate between the groups. Scores on tests of language comprehension and expression were also similar, but in both groups language abilities were well below chronological age level. The implications of these results with respect to the differences between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism are discussed. The poor performance on language tests also challenges the assumption that early language development in Asperger syndrome is essentially normal.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Translating instruments into other languages: development and testing processes.

Cross-cultural influences affect perceptions and health practices, which are 2 areas of nursing concern. Culturally sensitive assessment instruments are needed, but many challenges exist in obtaining valid and reliable measurement. Translating questionnaires for cross-cultural research is fraught with methodological pitfalls related to colloquial phrases, jargon, idiomatic expressions, word clarity, and word meanings. It cannot be assumed that a particular concept has the same relevance across cultures. Simply translating an English version word-for-word into another language is not adequate to account for linguistic and cultural differences. Ideally, the perspectives of people from the culture about the concept of interest should be studied first, but often a practical alternative is to find and translate a tool developed in another culture. The purpose of this article is to describe important considerations in conducting translation for equivalence, types of equivalence, and strategies to translate instruments that promote equivalence and how to test the translated version for equivalence. These concepts and strategies are illustrated by describing the translation process of Hilton's Uncertainty Stress Scale into French and the use and testing of the French version with a French Canadian sample in Skrutkowski's study of perceived uncertainty in adult survivors of cancer.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Repetition of lexicalization across languages: a further test of the locus of priming.

Wheeldon and Monsell (this issue) found that production of a word in response to a definition had a large and long-lasting facilitatory effect on latency for later production of the same word to name a pictured object, and that this priming effect was not due to repeated production of the phonological word-form per se. This paper reports a further test of the locus of the effect. Welsh-English bilinguals named pictured objects in Welsh. Half the words were primed either by their earlier production in Welsh in response to Welsh definitions or by production of their equivalents in English in response to English definitions. Substantial facilitation resulted from prior production in the same language, none from prior production in the other language--provided that the equivalents differed in phonological form. Given that priming results neither from repeated activation of a meaning when different phonological forms are produced, nor from repetition of the same phonological form in response to different meanings, the priming effect must be localized in the connection between a word's meaning and its phonological form. We also put forward an account of bilingual lexicalization that accommodates this result together with some evidence indicating that production of words in one language is not wholly insulated from the "availability" of words in the other.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Follow-up of children attending infant language units: outcomes at 11 years of age.

A large cohort of 242 children who had been attending infants language units at 7 years of age was followed up when the children were in their final year of primary school. Two hundred (83%) of the children were reassessed at 11 years of age on a wide battery of language and literacy measures, on a test of non-verbal ability, an autism checklist and a communication checklist. In total, 89% of children still scored < 1 SD from the mean on at least one test of language and the majority (63%) scored poorly on three or more assessments demonstrating widespread difficulties. Compared with non-verbal abilities at 7 years of age, a large proportion of the cohort also performed poorly on performance IQ subtests (28%). A further 10 children scored highly on a checklist for autistic spectrum disorder. Thus, only 115 (58%) children could be said to meet criteria for specific language impairment. A small group of 16 children appeared to have entirely resolved their difficulties. These outcomes and their implications for education and long-term impact of the disorder are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed2002

Testing hypotheses of language replacement in the Caucasus: evidence from the Y-chromosome.

A previous analysis of mtDNA variation in the Caucasus found that Indo-European-speaking Armenians and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijanians were more closely related genetically to other Caucasus populations (who speak Caucasian languages) than to other Indo-European or Turkic groups, respectively. Armenian and Azerbaijanian therefore represent language replacements, possibly via elite dominance involving primarily male migrants, in which case genetic relationships of Armenians and Azerbaijanians based on the Y-chromosome should more closely reflect their linguistic relationships. We therefore analyzed 11 bi-allelic Y-chromosome markers in 389 males from eight populations, representing all major linguistic groups in the Caucasus. As with the mtDNA study, based on the Y-chromosome Armenians and Azerbaijanians are more closely-related genetically to their geographic neighbors in the Caucasus than to their linguistic neighbors elsewhere. However, whereas the mtDNA results show that Caucasian groups are more closely related genetically to European than to Near Eastern groups, by contrast the Y-chromosome shows a closer genetic relationship with the Near East than with Europe.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Neuropsychological assessment for temporal lobe epilepsy surgery.

Neuropsychological assessment consists of a comprehensive evaluation of cognitive functioning and most often some evaluation of motor skills and sensory status also. Cognitive functions sampled typically include "intelligence" (IQ tests), attention, language skills, visuospatial abilities, "executive skills" and other abilities associated with frontal-lobe function, and learning and memory. Thus, the assessment samples vary widely among a variety of functions, providing a comprehensive picture of an individual's strengths and weaknesses. The resulting pattern points to the probable site of epileptic focus. Neuropsychological findings also serve to predict the risk for postsurgical cognitive decline and, when performance before and after operation is compared, they provide data on the impact of surgery upon cognitive functioning. Comprehensive evaluation of learning and memory is particularly important in this context, because of the frequency of temporal lobe epilepsy and the prominence of memory dysfunction associated with it. In addition, patients slated for elective surgery may also undergo an intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP), which is performed to determine the side of cerebral dominance for language and to test the memory capabilities of each hemisphere alone. All of these specialized neuropsychological tools are discussed in this paper.

Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe↗
PubMed1999

An empirical test of language-relevant interventions for dementia.

The focus of this report is the treatment of persons with dementia who are of a non-English-speaking background (NESB). Noisemaking is one behavioral manifestation associated with severe dementia. It can have devastating effects on persons with dementia by limiting their access to activity programs and social interaction, and is also very distressing for professionals and family carers. It can be especially difficult for carers when they do not speak the first (non-English) language of the person with the noisemaking problem, when the person has lost his or her ability to speak English as the dementia progresses. Behavioral interventions have been found to be successful in decreasing the occurrence of noisemaking in some people with severe dementia. This article reports on a study of an elderly Italian woman with dementia. The study used a randomized, alternating-treatments design in order to determine whether an Italian-language intervention would be more effective in reducing her noisemaking than the same intervention given in English. The main result of the study was that the Italian intervention was found to be significantly more effective in reducing noisemaking than the English intervention. Therefore, this exploratory study provides empirical evidence for the increased effectiveness of an intervention program in the patient's original language. The study also demonstrates the need for individualized intervention programs, particularly for NESB patients living in predominantly English-speaking institutions.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Cognitive substrates of thought disorder, II: specifying a candidate cognitive mechanism.

OBJECTIVE: In part I of this series, the authors found that semantic knowledge and organization accounted for most of the variance in thought disorder in a group of chronic schizophrenic patients. In the present study, they examined a possible cognitive mechanism within the semantic system that might produce thought disorder. METHOD: Twenty patients with chronic schizophrenia and 21 normal comparison subjects were assessed on priming (the ability to respond to a stimulus word more quickly when it is preceded by a semantically related word than when it is preceded by an unrelated word). The patients were divided into subgroups with high (N=9) and low (N=11) levels of thought disorder. The word pairs in the priming paradigm differed in their degree of association but shared a categorical membership. The paradigm involved short stimulus onset asynchronies to maximize automatic processing and required pronunciation of words to minimize decision making. All subjects were also administered neuropsychological tests to assess language, executive function, real-world knowledge, and mental status. RESULTS: Comparison subjects showed appropriate priming in stepwise fashion at the three different levels of word association, as did the patients with mild thought disorder. The patients with high thought disorder showed inhibited responses to high and medium associates compared with their baseline reaction times. Correlations between priming and cognitive variables were significant only with measures of semantic processing. Priming abnormalities were uniformly related to ratings of global thought disorder. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that aberrations in the automatic spread of activation or facilitation in semantic networks may be a candidate cognitive mechanism in semantic accounts of thought disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Translating a health professional certification test to another language. A pilot analysis.

There has been increased pressure in recent years for examinations used for occupational and professional credentialing to be offered in several languages. When credentialing programs are international in scope, rather than national, examination translation may be a necessity, and a validation of the translation will be required. Yet, few candidates may sit for the translated version, jeopardizing the power and generalizability of statistical analysis. How should a board proceed in meeting its linguistic responsibility when faced with a small n? This article describes such a situation, and the linguistic and psychometric procedures that were developed and applied on a pilot translation by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE).

Allied Health Personnel↗
PubMed1990

[Primarily unilateral herpes encephalitis. Long-term neuropsychological study of 9 cases].

Nine cases of post-herpetic encephalitis with predominant involvement of one temporal lobe at CT scan or MRI (6 on the left and 3 on the right sides) were studied 1 to 6 years after onset with repeated language and memory testing. The neuropsychological findings were well correlated with the lateralization and size of the lesions, as previously observed in unilateral temporal lobectomy. Compared with the usual bilateral form, the sequelae were mild, and all the patients, especially those with right hemisphere involvement, resumed a subnormal family life or social activity. In patients with left predominant lesions the anterograde amnesia concerned verbal information, especially logical and abstract, without visual amnesia. In some cases, the episodic verbal amnesia was associated with a semantic deficit which included the knowledge of some words. In one patient the colour, use and mental imagery of some objects corresponding to forgotten words were involved only for some specific groups (natural objects, whereas man-made objects fared better). Testing of verbal memory is proposed to determine the role of the preserved minor hemisphere in learning the context of word presentation, and words with concrete and visual connections which are better recalled than those with abstract or logical link. Disorders of behaviour or mood are usual in the 2 groups of lesions. Thus, herpes encephalitis in these asymmetrical and benign forms in an attractive model to study the role played by the temporal lobe and lateralization in memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Implications of memory and language dysfunction in the naming deficit of senile dementia.

Young normals, elderly normals, and patients with either mild-to-moderate or severe senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) were administered several tests of language function and remote memory. On all of the language tests examined, elderly normals exhibited a mild, nonsignificant performance decrement relative to the young normals. Advanced SDAT patients were markedly impaired on all of the tests. Early dementia patients were most impaired, relative to aged normals, on tests of object naming, category instance fluency, and remote memory. The deficit was smaller on the WAIS vocabulary subtest, on selecting the name of a visually presented object, and on recalling the function of an object. Early SDAT patients were least impaired in selecting the picture of an object after its name had been provided and in selecting objects that belong to a specified functional category. The results are consistent with the notion that the language dysfunction in early SDAT is due to a deficit in semantic memory function in which general, categorical information remains available whereas information about specific attributes becomes less accessible. The object naming test might be useful in the assessment of treatment effects upon SDAT because of its sensitivity and specificity to dementia, its high face validity, and its independence of recent memory.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

Small planum temporale volume in Down's syndrome: a volumetric MRI study.

OBJECTIVE: Down's syndrome is associated with structural brain abnormalities and language deficits. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the superior temporal gyrus and the planum temporale, both parts of the anatomic substrate for language, are abnormal in Down's syndrome. METHOD: The authors examined volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of the superior temporal gyrus and the planum temporale for 17 community-dwelling patients with Down's syndrome and 17 matched healthy comparison subjects. For the subjects with Down's syndrome, the correlations of the superior temporal gyrus and planum temporale volumes with performance on tests of language function were examined. RESULTS: The planum temporale volume of the patients with Down's syndrome was smaller than that of the healthy subjects, even after differences in whole brain volume were controlled for. The volume of the superior temporal gyrus in the Down's syndrome patients was proportionally similar to that of the comparison group. For the subjects with Down's syndrome, neither superior temporal gyrus nor planum temporale volume was significantly correlated with performance on language tests after total brain volume was controlled for. CONCLUSIONS: In Down's syndrome, planum temporale volume may be selectively smaller than normal, although the effect of this volume deficit on language is not clear.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Low birth weight and neurocognitive status at six years of age.

We examined the relationship between low birth weight (LBW) (< or = 2500 g) and specific neurocognitive abilities at 6 years of age in a large-scale nonconcurrent prospective study. In 1990-1992, we randomly selected and evaluated LBW and normal birth weight (NBW) children from the 1983-1985 newborn lists of two major hospitals in southeast Michigan, one serving an urban and the other a suburban population. LBW children (n = 473) scored significantly lower than NBW children (n = 350) on tests measuring language, spatial, fine motor, tactile, and attention abilities, controlling for population site, race, maternal IQ, and education. Gradient relationships were observed across levels of LBW with language, spatial, tactile, and attention tests. Exploratory analysis, using general additive models, revealed that test performance varied within birth weight levels and that performance continued to improve with increased birth weight well above 3000 g. Follow-up assessments as the children mature will shed light on the persistence of these associations and their implications for learning disorders.

Attention↗
PubMed1992

Testing primates with joystick-based automated apparatus: lessons from the Language Research Center's Computerized Test System.

Nonhuman primates provide useful models for studying a variety of medical, biological, and behavioral topics. Four years of joystick-based automated testing of monkeys using the Language Research Center's Computerized Test System (LRC-CTS) are examined to derive hints and principles for comparable testing with other species--including humans. The results of multiple parametric studies are reviewed, and reliability data are presented to reveal the surprises and pitfalls associated with video-task testing of performance.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Language screening as a factor in the management of the pediatric otolaryngic patient. Effectiveness and efficiency.

The Early Language Milestone Scale, a screening test for language in children from birth to 36 months of age, was applied to the total population of pediatric otolaryngic patients. Ninety-seven percent of the patients were found to have a completed screen. Thirty percent of the patients failed one or more portions of the Early Language Milestone screen. Practice management was modified by the results of the Early Language Milestone in all the patients who failed the screen. The Early Language Milestone was found to be efficient and effective in contributing to the management of the children with pediatric otolaryngic disorders and diseases.

Child, Preschool↗