Language

The domain of language includes speech production, comprehension, reading, writing, verbal fluency, naming, and semantic retrieval (Daffner et al, 2015)

• impaired semantic fluency is a common early sign in Alzheimers dementia (generally, AD affects concepts dealing with living things and abstract concepts moreso than non-living objects and verbs/actions) (Chertkow et al, 2008)

Neuropsychological tests of language

• Boston naming test (BNT)
• Boston naming test 15-item short form - a visual confrontation naming test, highly correlated with the full 60-item test
• Controlled oral word association test (COWAT)
• Semantic category fluency (within public domain)
• Western aphasia battery revised (WAB-R)
• Pyramids and palm trees - tests for semantic language: patients are shown a picture of a stimulus and must choose between two pictures which is the related picture (Finger 2016)

References

Chertkow, H., Whatmough, C., Saumier, D. & Duong, A. Chapter 25 Cognitive neuroscience studies of semantic memory in Alzheimer’s disease. in Progress in Brain Research vol. 169 393–407 (Elsevier, 2008). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18394489/

Daffner, K. R. et al. Improving clinical cognitive testing: Report of the AAN Behavioral Neurology Section Workgroup. Neurology 85, 910–918 (2015). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26163433/

Finger, E. C. Frontotemporal Dementias. Contin. Minneap. Minn 22, 464–489 (2016). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27042904/