DIFFERENCES IN VERBAL PRODUCTION IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS AND WITH MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

Idea density (ID) is a psycholinguistic phenomenon. Its association with cognitive capacity was repeatedly reported in several studies. Higher ID in young age probably relates to a life-long cognitive reserve, which may play preventive role in postponing devastating effects of neuropathological changes during aging in Alzheimer's disease. In our previous study we found that healthy seniors had higher ID than older persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in oral reports from recent past. The goal of this study is to find whether healthy older adults have higher ID than older patients with MCI in their written reports describing recent personal events. The study sample (n=40; 59-91 years) consists of 20 patients with MCI and 20 cognitively healthy older persons. The groups are equivalent as for age, gender and education. We receive written texts from all the participants - their descriptions of the last weekend, what they did, what happened. ID in the written texts from both groups is close to 0,6. Thus we found no difference in ID between the groups, which is in contrast to their oral answers as published before. Persons with MCI show lower ID in oral but not in written answers to the same question regarding recent events.