Investigating Noun and Verb Naming in Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia and Non-Patients Persian-Speaking

Atefeh  Ahmadi; Azar Mehr; Shohreh Jalaei; Vajiheh Aghamollaii

doi:10.18502/jmr.v18i3.16423

Atefeh Ahmadi Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Azar Mehr Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Shohreh Jalaei Department of Physiotherapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Vajiheh Aghamollaii Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/jmr.v18i3.16423

Keywords: Dementia; Behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD); Cognition; Naming

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the prevalence of cognitive disorders, such as the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and the consequences that these disorders follow, early diagnosis and awareness of the deficiencies of these people in the cognitive and language areas is essential. Given that language is dependent on culture, examining the linguistic characteristics of such patients in different languages can provide valuable findings. Therefore, this study compares noun and verb naming abilities in individuals with bvFTD and non-patients Persian-speaking.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 3 cognitive tests, including frontal assessment battery (FAB), Montreal cognitive assessment, and mini-mental state examination (MMSE), along with 2 noun naming and verb naming tests were performed on 15 patients with bvFTD and 30 homogeneous non-patient individuals.

Results: The bvFTD group had significantly different scores for both noun and verb naming compared to the non-patient group (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the bvFTD group was more impaired in naming verbs than nouns, with the largest difference between groups in the verb naming task.

Conclusion: the results showed that bvFTD patients have poorer noun and verb naming abilities than non-patients. In particular, in verb naming, they showed more deficits than nouns. One possible explanation is that the processing of verbs is more complicated than nouns and involves a more complex neural system and cognitive processes than noun processing. Another possibility is that verbs rely more heavily on frontal and temporal regions of the brain, which are typically affected by bvFTD.