Writing impairments in Japanese patients with mild Alzheimer's disease

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23530946
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Kobe University (2012-2015); Tohoku University (2011)
• Principal Investigator: Hayashi Atsuko 神戸大学, 保健学研究科, 准教授 (20542286)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: アルツハイマー病 / 軽度認知障害 / 失書 / 神経心理学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated writing abilities in patients with the amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To examine the earliest changes in writing function, we used writing tests for both words and sentences with different types of Japanese characters. A total of 25 aMCI patients, 38 AD patients, and 22 healthy controls performed writing to dictation for Kana and Kanji words, copied Kanji words, and wrote in response to a picture story task. For the written Kanji words, the AD group performed worse than the aMCI group and the controls, but there was no difference between the aMCI group and the controls. For the picture story writing task, the mild AD and aMCI groups performed worse than the controls, but the difference between the AD and the aMCI groups was not significant. Our study suggests that narrative writing, which demands complex integration of multiple cognitive functions, can be used to detect the subtle writing deficits in aMCI patients.

Free Research Field

神経心理学