Characteristics of reading and writing in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases

Osim dobro poznatih i utvrĎenih posljedica kao što su motorički simptomi kod Parkinsonove bolesti i demencije kod Alzheimerove bolesti, neurološke posljedice ovih bolesti takoĎer uzrokuju kognitivne i lingvističke promjene. Osobe s Parkinsonovom bolesti imaju očite nedostatke čitanja fizičkih knjiga zbog narušene motorike ruku, nemogućnosti manipulacije prstima i zglobovima i drhtavice ruku što im stvara teškoće tijekom okretanja stranica. Isti nedostaci zadaju teškoće prilikom izvedbe vještine pisanja uzrokujući mikrografiju. Osim toga, teškoće čitanja javljaju se radi narušene vizualne obrade, a problemi se javljaju i s razumijevanjem pročitanog teksta. Kod Alzheimerove bolesti teškoće se javljaju na razini fonologije i semantike, poremećena je leksička ortografska obrada te je narušena vizualna analiza što se sve odraţava na čitanje kod ove populacije. Prilikom izvedbe pisanja, narušeno je planiranje, sekvencioniranje i organizacija na razini slova, riječi, rečenica te izvedba na narativnim razinama, a oslabljen je i raspon i kompleksnost gramatičkih struktura. Poteškoće u čitanju i pisanju pokazale su se kao osjetljiviji pokazatelj disfunkcije jezika kod Alzheimerove i Parkinsonove bolesti. Razumijevanje nedostataka na različitim razinama procesa čitanja i pisanja moţe pomoći logopedima da razviju strategije za terapiju i poboljšaju opću komunikaciju i funkcioniranje osoba ove populacije.Apart from well-known and proven consequences such as motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease and dementia in Alzheimer's disease, the neurological consequences of these diseases also cause cognitive and linguistic changes. People with Parkinson's disease have obvious deficits in reading physical books due to broken hand motion, inability to manipulate fingers and joints, and shaking their hands making them trouble turning pages. The same deficits give rise to difficulties in the performance of writing skills causing micrographia. In addition, reading difficulties occur due to impaired visual processing, and problems arise also with the reading comprehension. In Alzheimer's disease, difficulties occur at the level of phonology and semantics, the lexical orthographic processing and visual processing are disturbed which is all reflected in reading in this population. During the act of writing, planning, sequencing, and organization at the level of letters, words, sentences and performance at narrative levels is disturbed. The range and complexity of the grammatical structures is also weakened.Difficulties in reading and writing have been shown to be a sensitive indicator of language dysfunction in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Understanding the deficit at different levels of reading and writing can help speech and language pathologysts to develop therapy strategies and improve the overall communication and functioning of the people of this population