Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses
Discourse comprehension is at the core of communication capabilities, making it an important component of elderly populations’ quality of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes in discourse comprehension and the underlying brain activity. Thirty-six participants read short stories and an...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-03-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00069/full |
| _version_ | 1819144141766918144 |
|---|---|
| author | Charles-Olivier Martin Charles-Olivier Martin Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Valérie Daoust Valérie Daoust Eric Yamga Eric Yamga Mahnoush Amiri Mahnoush Amiri Lilian C. Hübner Bernadette Ska Bernadette Ska |
| author_facet | Charles-Olivier Martin Charles-Olivier Martin Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Valérie Daoust Valérie Daoust Eric Yamga Eric Yamga Mahnoush Amiri Mahnoush Amiri Lilian C. Hübner Bernadette Ska Bernadette Ska |
| author_sort | Charles-Olivier Martin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Discourse comprehension is at the core of communication capabilities, making it an important component of elderly populations’ quality of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes in discourse comprehension and the underlying brain activity. Thirty-six participants read short stories and answered related probes in three conditions: micropropositions, macropropositions and situation models. Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the variation in oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxyhemoglobin (HbR) concentrations was assessed throughout the task. The results revealed that the older adults performed with equivalent accuracy to the young ones at the macroproposition level of discourse comprehension, but were less accurate at the microproposition and situation model levels. Similar to what is described in the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) model, older participants tended to have greater activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while reading in all conditions. Although it did not enable them to perform similarly to younger participants in all conditions, this over-activation could be interpreted as a compensation mechanism. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:37:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7734a34792ed46cb8b43642c11494e8a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1663-4365 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:37:25Z |
| publishDate | 2018-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-7734a34792ed46cb8b43642c11494e8a2022-12-21T18:25:32ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience1663-43652018-03-011010.3389/fnagi.2018.00069286846Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS AnalysesCharles-Olivier Martin0Charles-Olivier Martin1Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet2Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet3Valérie Daoust4Valérie Daoust5Eric Yamga6Eric Yamga7Mahnoush Amiri8Mahnoush Amiri9Lilian C. Hübner10Bernadette Ska11Bernadette Ska12Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaFaculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaFaculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaFaculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaGénie Biomédical, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaDepartamento de Linguistica, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, BrazilFaculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaCentre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, QC, CanadaDiscourse comprehension is at the core of communication capabilities, making it an important component of elderly populations’ quality of life. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes in discourse comprehension and the underlying brain activity. Thirty-six participants read short stories and answered related probes in three conditions: micropropositions, macropropositions and situation models. Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), the variation in oxyhemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxyhemoglobin (HbR) concentrations was assessed throughout the task. The results revealed that the older adults performed with equivalent accuracy to the young ones at the macroproposition level of discourse comprehension, but were less accurate at the microproposition and situation model levels. Similar to what is described in the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) model, older participants tended to have greater activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex while reading in all conditions. Although it did not enable them to perform similarly to younger participants in all conditions, this over-activation could be interpreted as a compensation mechanism.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00069/fullagingdiscourse comprehensioncerebral plasticitylanguageNIRS |
| spellingShingle | Charles-Olivier Martin Charles-Olivier Martin Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Stéphanie Pontbriand-Drolet Valérie Daoust Valérie Daoust Eric Yamga Eric Yamga Mahnoush Amiri Mahnoush Amiri Lilian C. Hübner Bernadette Ska Bernadette Ska Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience aging discourse comprehension cerebral plasticity language NIRS |
| title | Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses |
| title_full | Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses |
| title_fullStr | Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses |
| title_short | Narrative Discourse in Young and Older Adults: Behavioral and NIRS Analyses |
| title_sort | narrative discourse in young and older adults behavioral and nirs analyses |
| topic | aging discourse comprehension cerebral plasticity language NIRS |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00069/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT charlesoliviermartin narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT charlesoliviermartin narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT stephaniepontbrianddrolet narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT stephaniepontbrianddrolet narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT valeriedaoust narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT valeriedaoust narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT ericyamga narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT ericyamga narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT mahnoushamiri narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT mahnoushamiri narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT lilianchubner narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT bernadetteska narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses AT bernadetteska narrativediscourseinyoungandolderadultsbehavioralandnirsanalyses |