Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach
IntroductionPosterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is a syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in higher-order visuospatial processing, leading to symptoms such as space perception deficit, simultanagnosia, and object perception impairment. While PCA is primarily known for its impact on visuospat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2024.1342909/full |
| _version_ | 1797323698168922112 |
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| author | Neguine Rezaii Daisy Hochberg Megan Quimby Bonnie Wong Scott McGinnis Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Deepti Putcha |
| author_facet | Neguine Rezaii Daisy Hochberg Megan Quimby Bonnie Wong Scott McGinnis Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Deepti Putcha |
| author_sort | Neguine Rezaii |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionPosterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is a syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in higher-order visuospatial processing, leading to symptoms such as space perception deficit, simultanagnosia, and object perception impairment. While PCA is primarily known for its impact on visuospatial abilities, recent studies have documented language abnormalities in PCA patients. This study aims to delineate the nature and origin of language impairments in PCA, hypothesizing that language deficits reflect the visuospatial processing impairments of the disease.MethodsWe compared the language samples of 25 patients with PCA with age-matched cognitively normal (CN) individuals across two distinct tasks: a visually-dependent picture description and a visually-independent job description task. We extracted word frequency, word utterance latency, and spatial relational words for this comparison. We then conducted an in-depth analysis of the language used in the picture description task to identify specific linguistic indicators that reflect the visuospatial processing deficits of PCA.ResultsPatients with PCA showed significant language deficits in the visually-dependent task, characterized by higher word frequency, prolonged utterance latency, and fewer spatial relational words, but not in the visually-independent task. An in-depth analysis of the picture description task further showed that PCA patients struggled to identify certain visual elements as well as the overall theme of the picture. A predictive model based on these language features distinguished PCA patients from CN individuals with high classification accuracy.DiscussionThe findings indicate that language is a sensitive behavioral construct to detect visuospatial processing abnormalities of PCA. These insights offer theoretical and clinical avenues for understanding and managing PCA, underscoring language as a crucial marker for the visuospatial deficits of this atypical variant of Alzheimer’s disease. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T05:32:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ad951c971b1940c1ada17ccb9da878c4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-453X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T05:32:17Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-ad951c971b1940c1ada17ccb9da878c42024-02-06T04:31:53ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neuroscience1662-453X2024-02-011810.3389/fnins.2024.13429091342909Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approachNeguine Rezaii0Daisy Hochberg1Megan Quimby2Bonnie Wong3Scott McGinnis4Bradford C. Dickerson5Bradford C. Dickerson6Bradford C. Dickerson7Deepti Putcha8Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesFrontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesFrontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesFrontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesCenter for Brain Mind Medicine, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United StatesFrontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesAthinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United StatesAlzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United StatesFrontotemporal Disorders Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United StatesIntroductionPosterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA) is a syndrome characterized by a progressive decline in higher-order visuospatial processing, leading to symptoms such as space perception deficit, simultanagnosia, and object perception impairment. While PCA is primarily known for its impact on visuospatial abilities, recent studies have documented language abnormalities in PCA patients. This study aims to delineate the nature and origin of language impairments in PCA, hypothesizing that language deficits reflect the visuospatial processing impairments of the disease.MethodsWe compared the language samples of 25 patients with PCA with age-matched cognitively normal (CN) individuals across two distinct tasks: a visually-dependent picture description and a visually-independent job description task. We extracted word frequency, word utterance latency, and spatial relational words for this comparison. We then conducted an in-depth analysis of the language used in the picture description task to identify specific linguistic indicators that reflect the visuospatial processing deficits of PCA.ResultsPatients with PCA showed significant language deficits in the visually-dependent task, characterized by higher word frequency, prolonged utterance latency, and fewer spatial relational words, but not in the visually-independent task. An in-depth analysis of the picture description task further showed that PCA patients struggled to identify certain visual elements as well as the overall theme of the picture. A predictive model based on these language features distinguished PCA patients from CN individuals with high classification accuracy.DiscussionThe findings indicate that language is a sensitive behavioral construct to detect visuospatial processing abnormalities of PCA. These insights offer theoretical and clinical avenues for understanding and managing PCA, underscoring language as a crucial marker for the visuospatial deficits of this atypical variant of Alzheimer’s disease.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2024.1342909/fullposterior cortical atrophylanguage indicatorsvisuospatial impairmentsemantic processingnatural language processing |
| spellingShingle | Neguine Rezaii Daisy Hochberg Megan Quimby Bonnie Wong Scott McGinnis Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Bradford C. Dickerson Deepti Putcha Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach Frontiers in Neuroscience posterior cortical atrophy language indicators visuospatial impairment semantic processing natural language processing |
| title | Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach |
| title_full | Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach |
| title_fullStr | Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach |
| title_short | Language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy: a natural language processing approach |
| title_sort | language uncovers visuospatial dysfunction in posterior cortical atrophy a natural language processing approach |
| topic | posterior cortical atrophy language indicators visuospatial impairment semantic processing natural language processing |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2024.1342909/full |
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