Features of answers to questions about recent events by people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, and healthy controls

Authors

  • Gareth Walker University of Sheffield
  • Traci Walker University of Sheffield
  • Ronan O'Malley Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Bahman Mirheidari University of Sheffield
  • Heidi Christensen University of Sheffield
  • Markus Reuber University of Sheffield; Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Daniel Blackburn University of Sheffield

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.24511

Keywords:

MCI, dementia, conversation analysis, memory, responses

Abstract

Background: Asking patients who have been referred to memory clinics open questions about recent events has been shown to have diagnostic relevance.

Method: We use conversation analysis to look at responses to questions about recent events. The interviewees are healthy control (HC) participants, people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Results: We show differences among the groups’ use of claims of memory problems, self-directed questions, and well-prefacing. Healthy control participants produce more talk in response to all of these, while people with MCI and AD either do not, or do so in demonstrably different ways from both HC participants and each other.

Discussion/conclusion: Healthy control participants are both willing and able to ‘show off’ their memory, while people with AD are willing but generally unable to do so. People with MCI, in contrast, display themselves as both unwilling and unable to engage with the agent’s questions as tests of memory.

Author Biographies

  • Gareth Walker, University of Sheffield

    Gareth Walker is a senior lecturer in the School of English, University of Sheffield. His research tries to reach a more complete understanding of how people use linguistic resources in conversation. He has published on topics including turn-taking, laughter, communication impairment, and the co-ordination of vocal and visible resources (gaze, posture, gesture).

  • Traci Walker, University of Sheffield

    Traci Walker is a senior lecturer in the Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield. Her research uses the methodology of conversation analysis to investigate the function and use of linguistic structures in both typical and atypical communication.

  • Ronan O'Malley, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

    Ronan O’Malley is a consultant neurologist with a specialist interest in cognitive disorders. He works at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust. He is also a Biomedical Research Council doctoral fellow. His research interests include non-invasive diagnostic tests for cognitive disorders with a focus on language and imaging.

  • Bahman Mirheidari, University of Sheffield

    Bahman Mirheidari is a research associate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. His main research interests are in the areas of medical applications of speech technology, automatic speech recognition of conversations, and emotion detection in conversations.

  • Heidi Christensen, University of Sheffield

    Heidi Christensen is a professor of spoken language technology in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. Her research interests are in the use of speech and language processing in the healthcare domain. Her core expertise is in the automatic detection and tracking of people’s physical and mental health, including verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotion, anxiety, depression, and neurodegenerative conditions.

  • Markus Reuber, University of Sheffield; Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

    Markus Reuber is a professor of clinical neurology at the University of Sheffield and an honorary consultant at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, United Kingdom. He is particularly interested in the phenomenology and treatment of seizure and cognitive disorders. He has used the methodology of conversation analysis to address a number of diagnostic and communicative challenges in clinical neurology.

  • Daniel Blackburn, University of Sheffield

    Daniel Blackburn is a senior lecturer and honorary consultant neurologist working at the University of Sheffield. His research interests are non-invasive diagnostic tests for early dementia or cognitive impairment using automated analysis of language and electroencephalography. He is the lead for young onset dementia in Sheffield.

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Published

2023-10-25

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 3 (2023)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

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How to Cite

Walker, G., Walker, T., O'Malley, R., Mirheidari, B., Christensen, H., Reuber, M., & Blackburn, D. (2023). Features of answers to questions about recent events by people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, and healthy controls. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 14(3), 408-429. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.24511