Naming Errors in Multiple-Sclerosis - Support for a Combined Semantic Perceptual Deficit

A detailed examination of the types of naming errors produced by 60 individuals with multiple sclerosis were compared with 60 age, sex and education matched controls. The results revealed that the MS group produced significantly more naming errors than the control subjects, particularly those responses semantically related to the target word. No relationship, perceptual, phonological and unrecognised correct errors were the least frequently occurring responses. As a group, the MS subjects' naming errors appeared to reflect a lexical semantic accessing deficit. Individual subjects, however, found to produce high frequencies of perceptual naming errors which may have been explained by optic nerve disturbances. It is concluded that naming disturbances in MS may result from disruption at the levels of the perceptual and the semantic system. The results are discussed in relation to models of subcortical participation in language processing

Performance of subjects with multiple sclerosis on tests of high-level language

The present study describes the high-level language (HLL) abilities of a group of 60 subjects with multiple sclerosis (MS) based on their performance on the Test of Language Competence (TLC) and The Word Test (TWT). Comparative performance of the MS group with matched control subjects revealed that the MS subjects presented with difficulties understanding ambiguous sentences and metaphoric expressions, making inferences, and re-creating sentences, and exhibited relatively poor performance on vocabulary and semantic tasks. Subjects with both a chronic progressive (CP) (n = 32) and relapsing remitting (RR) (n = 28) course of MS had significant HLL problems, thereby suggesting that the presence of language deficits is not determined by disease course, as proposed by some authors. However, it was noted that the CP group had more severe language problems than the RR group, as indicated by lower scores on tasks requiring the subjects to re-create sentences, understand ambiguous sentences, make associations, identify synonyms and define words. The implications of the findings of HLL deficits in both CP and RR forms of MS are discussed in relation to the role of subcortical white matter pathways in language processing

Narrative discourse in multiple sclerosis: An investigation of conceptual structure

The aim of the present study was to determine whether multiple sclerosis (MS) affects a person's ability to formulate message content in narrative discourse. Discourse samples were elicited from 47 persons with MS and 47 matched controls in response to computer-generated, animated sequences. Within the conceptual level of discourse processing, data were analysed for story schema and informative content. The two groups, MS and control, could not be distinguished by measures of the quantity of information conveyed. However, results revealed a difference in the nature of the information produced by the two groups. The persons with MS produced less essential story information than control subjects, while a tendency for the persons with MS to produce more incorrect and ambiguous information than controls was also noted. A number of factors were considered in an attempt to explain the underlying source of these differences. It was postulated that both pragmatic and cognitive skills impact on performance in the narrative genre; hence, deficits in these areas may have contributed to the observed performance deficits. The nature of the deficits was considered consistent with subcortical plaque damage affecting fibre tracts between and within cerebral hemispheres. The findings of the present study suggest that further research into narrative production in MS is warranted

Language disorders subsequent to left cerebellar lesions: A case for bilateral cerebellar involvement in language?

Background: Crossed cerebello-cerebral diaschisis, reflecting a functional depression of supratentorial language areas due to reduced input via cerebello-cortical pathways, may represent the neuropathological mechanism responsible for language deficits associated with cerebellar pathology. Although it has been proposed that language is lateralized to the right cerebellar hemisphere, recent clinical and neuroimaging studies suggest that the cerebellum may bilaterally influence the regulation of language, with the left cerebellar hemisphere also contributing to the mediation of language via ipsilateral cerebello-cortical pathways. Aims: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of left primary cerebellar lesions on general as well as higher-level language function. Methods and Procedures: Linguistic profiles of a group of ten individuals with left primary cerebellar lesions were compared with those of a group of non-neurologically impaired controls matched for age, gender and level of education. Outcomes and Results: The findings confirmed that higher-level language deficits may result from left primary cerebellar lesions possibly as a consequence of ipsilateral cerebral diaschisis. Conclusions: The results challenge the notion of a right lateralized cerebellum and support a role for the left as well as the right cerebellar hemisphere in the regulation of language function. Copyright (c) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel