Visual And Auditory Sentence Processing In Older Adults: Effects Of Predictability On Recognition Ability

Abstract

Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) only subjectively complains of memory problems, but the prerequisite is that neuropsychological tests must be normal. However, previous studies have often reported decreased connectivity in SCI's fronto-pariental cortex and medial frontal cortex, and decreased performance compared to normal controls in naming, discourse, and memory tasks. Recently, in-depth consideration is being given to their processing ability in various cognitive-language tasks. In this study, we focused on recognition ability, which is important in memory retrieval, and examined how the sentence recognition ability of the normal group (N=16) and SCI (N=15) differed depending on sentence predictabilty and stimulus type. As a result, both groups showed poorer performance in auditory stimuli than visual stimuli, and SCI performance was found to be further reduced in low predictability (LP) sentences that require more attention. The slow appearance of semantic priming for the target word indicates a decrease in real-time processing ability to utilize information, which is affected by attention and memory. Although patients subjectively complain of memory problems, objectively identifying the attention concentration and memory processing of SCI, which is already impaired, can be considered to have valuable clinical value.