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Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with medial frontal and amygdala functional alterations during the processing of traumatic material and frontoparietal dysfunctions during working memory tasks. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the effects of trauma-related words processing on working memory in patients with PTSD. Methods: We obtained fMRI scans during a 3-back task and an identity task on both neutral and trauma-related words in women with PTSD who had been sexually abused and in healthy, nonexposed pair-matched controls. Results: Seventeen women with PTSD and 17 controls participated in the study. We found no behavioural working memory deficit for the PTSD group. In both tasks, deactivation of posterior parietal midline regions was more pronounced in patients than controls. Additionally, patients with PTSD recruited the left dorsolateral frontal sites to a greater extent during the processing of trauma-related material than neutral material. Limitations: This study included only women and did not include a trauma-exposed non-PTSD control group; the results may, therefore, have been influenced by sex or by effects specific to trauma exposure. Conclusion: Our results broadly confirm frontal and parietal functional variations in women with PTSD and suggest a compensatory nature of these variations with regard to the retreival of traumatic memories and global attentional deficits, respectively, during cognitively challenging tasks., Introduction Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with altered processing of emotional material with a strong attentional bias toward trauma-related information, (1) which is likely to facilitate stimulus detection (2) [...]

Résumé: La maladie à corps de Lewy (MCL) demeure sous-diagnostiquée, notamment au stade précoce lorsque les personnes présentent de discrets troubles neurocognitifs semblables à ceux retrouvés dans la maladie d'Alzheimer (MA). Afin d'enrichir le diagnostic différentiel MCL/MA et d'améliorer le suivi des patients, notre étude analyse leurs capacités à raconter une histoire en produisant un discours narratif (DN). Méthode : 25 participants présentant une MCL et 12 participants présentant une MA ont passé un test de DN issu de la batterie d'évaluation du langage GREMOTS. Résultats : Au stade précoce, un quart des personnes souffrant d'une MCL présente un DN déficitaire, proportion largement augmentée au stade avancé. Les personnes présentant une MA ont toutes un DN déficitaire dès le stade précoce. Le DN total des personnes présentant une MCL est alors significativement mieux préservé que celui des personnes présentant une MA, différence non retrouvée au stade avancé. Deux profils langagiers apparaissent, montrant surtout que les personnes présentant une MA sont significativement moins informatives que les personnes présentant une MCL au stade précoce. Discussion : Ces résultats sont précieux pour étayer le diagnostic différentiel et permettent à l'orthophoniste d'ajuster au mieux sa rééducation, tout en sensibilisant les aidants. Ils encouragent la poursuite des recherches, encore peu nombreuses, sur le langage dans les maladies neurodégénératives. Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common form of dementia, after Alzheimer's disease (AD). Subjects with DLB remain under-diagnosed, especially in the early stage of the disease, when they can show subtle neurocognitive disorders similar to subjects with AD. In order to refine the differential diagnosis between these two neurodegenerative diseases and to improve patients' care, our speech therapy study aimed to analyze their ability to tell a story by producing a narrative discourse (ND). Method: 25 participants with DLB and 12 participants with AD underwent a ND test based on an illustrated story. The test was selected from the French language assessment corpus GREMOTS. The grading of the ND was done according to the following six parameters: lexicon, syntax, pragmatics, presence of the main actions, quality of discourse and informativeness. Results: In the early stage, a quarter of the participants with DLB are under cut-off score for ND, and this proportion strongly increases in the advanced stage. In contrast, all the participants with AD show a pathological ND in both stages. In the early stage, the ND abilities appear significantly better preserved in participants with DLB than in participants with AD. No difference is found in the advanced stage. This result highlights two distinct language profiles, with the participants with AD being significantly less informative than the participants with DLB in the early stage. Furthermore, the participants with DLB show pathological scores spreading over the six parameters, whereas the participants with AD have more selective impairments. Indeed, the informativeness of participants with AD is 100% pathological while their syntax is 100% preserved. Discussion: These results are encouraging as they could enable speech therapists to better adjust their follow-up according to the linguistic profile of the patients and to educate caregivers more appropriately. Further research on language issues in DLB and AD is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common form of dementia, after Alzheimer's disease (AD). Subjects with DLB remain under-diagnosed, especially in the early stage of the disease, when they can show subtle neurocognitive disorders similar to subjects with AD. In order to refine the differential diagnosis between these two neurodegenerative diseases and to improve patients' care, our speech therapy study aimed to analyze their ability to tell a story by producing a narrative discourse (ND)., Method: 25 participants with DLB and 12 participants with AD underwent a ND test based on an illustrated story. The test was selected from the French language assessment corpus GREMOTS. The grading of the ND was done according to the following six parameters: lexicon, syntax, pragmatics, presence of the main actions, quality of discourse and informativeness., Results: In the early stage, a quarter of the participants with DLB are under cut-off score for ND, and this proportion strongly increases in the advanced stage. In contrast, all the participants with AD show a pathological ND in both stages. In the early stage, the ND abilities appear significantly better preserved in participants with DLB than in participants with AD. No difference is found in the advanced stage. This result highlights two distinct language profiles, with the participants with AD being significantly less informative than the participants with DLB in the early stage. Furthermore, the participants with DLB show pathological scores spreading over the six parameters, whereas the participants with AD have more selective impairments. Indeed, the informativeness of participants with AD is 100% pathological while their syntax is 100% preserved., Discussion: These results are encouraging as they could enable speech therapists to better adjust their follow-up according to the linguistic profile of the patients and to educate caregivers more appropriately. Further research on language issues in DLB and AD is essential.