Reversing Ribot: Does regression hold in language of prodromal Alzheimer’s disease?

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 143; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Lust, Barbara, Flynn, Suzanne, Cohen Sherman, Janet, Gair, James, Henderson, Charles R., Cordella, Claire, Whitlock, Jordan, Mancuso, Sarah, Chen, Zhong, Costigan, Aileen, Immerman, Alex
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.04.2015
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging; Aging - pathology; Aging - psychology; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Brain - pathology; Child; Child development; Child, Preschool; Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnosis; Cognitive Dysfunction - psychology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Language; Male; Mild cognitive impairment; Prodromal Symptoms; Regression (Psychology); Regression hypothesis; Ribot; Young Adult; Aging; Language; Ribot; Child development; Mild cognitive impairment; Regression hypothesis
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.01.013

•We test Ribot’s hypothesis in language of prodromal Alzheimer’s disease.•We compare child language to language deterioration in mild cognitive impairment.•Ribot’s hypothesis is not supported in this domain.•We suggest alternative explanations for language deficits in MCI. We consider the regression or retrogenesis hypothesis, which argues that order of acquisition in development is reversed in neurodegeneration or pathology. Originally proposed as a regression hypothesis for the study of memory disorders, specifically retrograde amnesia, by Ribot (1881), it has been extended to the study of brain aging and pathology and to language. We investigate this hypothesis in a new study of language development, aging, and pathology. Through interuniversity collaboration using a matched experimental design and task, we compare production of complex sentences containing relative clauses by normal monolingual children during normal development, healthy young adults, healthy aging adults, and aging adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a recognized potential harbinger of Alzheimer’s disease. Our results refute the regression hypothesis in this area and lead to potential syntactic markers for prodromal Alzheimer’s disease and predictions for future brain imaging analyses.