Is Forgetting The Odd Word Normal Ageing Or A Sign Of Dementia?

Man thinkingIn his book How To Prevent Dementia, neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, author, and professor Dr Richard Restak shared that four warning signs of dementia include what he calls the four As.These are amnesia (forgetting things), agnosia, or “an impairment of correctly understanding information provided by the senses of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting,” apraxia, or struggling to tie your thoughts and movements together in the right order, and aphasia. The last one involves not being able to understand, find, or use the right words. “Rambling speech” has also been linked to the condition. A paper published in the journal Ageing, Neuropsychology, and Cognition explored the link between word-finding difficulty (WFD) and cognitive impairment, often seen as a precursor to dementia.Its results may be somewhat reassuring to people who often forget the right word. What is “word-finding difficulty” (WFD)?The term refers to that “tip of your tongue” feeling that happens when you know what you want to say, but forget the exact word or phrase to express it. In the 2023 paper, scientists found that WFD increased with age.They did not, however, say that occasionally forgetting the word for an object means you have early dementia.This may be a normal part of ageing, they suggest (indeed, Dr Restak wrote, “Neither amnesia nor aphasia in their milder forms is always abnormal”).The researchers asked 125 participants, aged 18-90, to take picture-word interference tests. These combine conflicting words and images (in this case, looking at an image while headphones play a different word), which participants are asked to untangle.Then, they were asked to describe complex images for a minute.Older people took longer to find the right word for the right picture. But this was not linked to increased cognitive decline in this study; speaking slowly seemed to be more significant.“Instead, how fast participants were able to name pictures predicted how fast they spoke in general, and both were linked to executive function,” Neuroscience News says.To put it another way, it’s not how long people paused to find a word; it’s how fluent and fast their speech was afterwards.Dr Jed Meltzer, the study’s lead author, said: “Our results indicate that changes in general talking speed may reflect changes in the brain.” Does that mean slow talkers definitely have dementia?No. This association needs more research, the scientists say; it is only linked to cognitive decline, which is associated with dementia. It is not proof of dementia in and of itself.Still, Dr Meltzer says, it could help with crucial early diagnosis. “This [study] suggests that talking speed should be tested as part of standard cognitive assessments to help clinicians detect cognitive decline faster and help older adults support their brain health as they age,” he told Neuroscience News.Related...'She Stopped Talking': 5-Year-Old’s Dementia Diagnosis Began With These Early Warning SignsJudi Dench Is Right – Dementia Diagnoses Can Take 'Far Too Long'These 4 Tests May Reveal Dementia Risk 18 Years Before Diagnosis

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