Disorders of representation and control in semantic cognition: Effects of familiarity, typicality, and specificity.

ABSTRACT: We present a case-series comparison of patients with cross-modal semantic impairments consequent on either (a) bilateral anterior temporal lobe atrophy in semantic dementia (SD) or (b) left-hemisphere fronto-parietal and/or posterior temporal stroke in semantic aphasia (SA). Both groups were assessed on a new test battery designed to measure how performance is influenced by concept familiarity, typicality and specificity. In line with previous findings, performance in SD was strongly modulated by all of these factors, with better performance for more familiar items (regardless of typicality), for more typical items (regardless of familiarity) and for tasks that did not require very specific classification, consistent with the gradual degradation of conceptual knowledge in SD. The SA group

SUBMITTER: Rogers TT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4582808 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature