Can sex influence the neurocognition of language? Evidence from Parkinson's disease

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:148

Article

Reifegerste, Jana^1,2,3  Estabrooke, Ivy V.^2,4  Russell, Lauren E.²  Verissimo, Joao⁵  Johari, Karim⁶  Wilmarth, Barbara^7,8  Pagan, Fernando L.^7,8  Moussa, Charbel⁷  Ullman, Michael T.² 

[1] Westfalische Wilhelms Univ Munster, Dept Psychol, Munster, Germany

[2] Georgetown Univ, Dept Neurosci, Brain & Language Lab, Washington, DC 20057 USA

[3] Univ Potsdam, Potsdam Res Inst Multilingualism, Potsdam, Germany

[4] Ctr Sci & Technol Policy, Salt Lake City, UT USA

[5] Univ Potsdam, Dept Linguist, Potsdam, Germany

[6] Univ South Carolina, Dept Psychol, Columbia, SC 29208 USA

[7] Georgetown Univ, Med Ctr, Dept Neurol, Translat Neurotherapeut Program,Lab Dementia & Pa, Washington, DC 20007 USA

[8] MedStar Georgetown Univ Hosp, Movement Disorders Clin, Dept Neurol, Washington, DC USA

关键词: Regular and irregular inflectional morphology;    Parkinson's disease;    Sex differences;    Compensation;    Hypokinesia;    Basal ganglia;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107633

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Parkinson's disease (PD), which involves basal ganglia degeneration, affects language as well as motor function. However, which aspects of language are impaired in PD and under what circumstances remains unclear. We examined whether lexical and grammatical aspects of language are differentially affected in PD, and whether this dissociation is moderated by sex as well as the degree of basal ganglia degeneration. Our predictions were based on the declarative/procedural model of language. The model posits that grammatical composition, including in regular inflection, depends importantly on left basal ganglia procedural memory circuits, whereas irregular and other lexicalized forms are memorized in declarative memory. Since females tend to show declarative memory advantages as compared to males, the model further posits that females should tend to rely on this system for regulars, which can be stored as lexicalized chunks. We tested non-demented male and female PD patients and healthy control participants on the intensively studied paradigm of English regular and irregular past-tense production. Mixed-effects regression revealed PD deficits only at regular inflection, only in male patients. The degree of left basal ganglia degeneration, as reflected by right-side hypokinesia, predicted only regular inflection, and only in male patients. Left-side hypokinesia did not show this pattern. Past-tense frequency effects suggested that the female patients retrieved regular as well as irregular past-tense forms from declarative memory, whereas the males retrieved only irregulars. Sensitivity analyses showed that the pattern of findings was robust. The results, which are consistent with the declarative/procedural model, suggest a grammatical deficit in PD due to left basal ganglia degeneration, with a relative sparing of lexical retrieval. Female patients appear to compensate for this deficit by relying on chunks stored in declarative memory. More generally, the study elucidates the neurocognition of inflectional morphology and provides evidence that sex can influence how language is computed in the mind and brain.

【 授权许可】

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