Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Session Title: Huntington's disease
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Exhibit Hall located in Hall B, Level 2
Objective: To characterize the language and communication abilities of HD patients as reflected in tasks involving naming, verbal fluency, working memory and pragmatics.
Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder characterized with motor, cognitive and psychiatric disturbances. As it progress patients experience reduced language and communication skills.
Methods: The study included 13 HD participants (7 males), mean age 48±12 from the movement disorders unit at Tel Aviv Medical center. All participants underwent United Huntington’s Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Naming Test (NT), the Phonemic Fluency (PF) and Semantic Fluency (SF) subtests and the Auditory Word Matching Span (AWMS) test. Each session was video recorded and each participant’s pragmatic behavior was estimated by 3 judges, according to the Pragmatic Protocol (PP). The scores were compared to the tests’ norms.
Results: Mean disease duration 8.15±3.67, disease severity 36.67±14.47, number of repeats 45.08±4.8 and MoCA 19.17±5.17. There was a significant difference between the HD patients tests scores and the tests norms: NT 40.45±6.61 (p=0.011); PF 10±5.66; SF 22.33±11.34; AWMS 2.20±1.48; PP 43.33±22.77 (p<0.001 respectively). A significant difference was found between PF and SF scores (p<0.001). The verbal/ paralinguistic/ non-verbal pragmatic aspects that had the highest scores were ‘verbal or non-verbal feedback to speaker’/ ‘Intonation’/ ‘Physical proximity’ and ‘Physical contacts’ 69.23±0.48/61.54±0.51/100±0 and 100±0 respectively. The lowest scores were ‘Topic change’/ ‘Vocal quality’/ ‘Foot/ leg and hand/ arm movements’ 7.69±0.28/23.08±0.44/0±0 respectively. A significant correlation was found between UHDRS and SF scores (p<0.05) and between MoCA and AWMS scores (p<0.01).
Conclusions: Reduced language and communication skills can be an indication of disease severity and cognitive decline. These findings may help develop specific language intervention program as well as serve as a possible marker of disease progression.
Israel Neurological Association Annual Congress 2015.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Y. Manor, D. Shpunt, S. Naor, L. Frydman, A. Gad, A. Ezra, A. Migirov, J. Knaani, A. Socher, T. Gurevich. Communication and language skills in Huntington’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/communication-and-language-skills-in-huntingtons-disease/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/communication-and-language-skills-in-huntingtons-disease/