ABSTRACT

The dynamic and unpredictable nature of expressive vocabulary dropout in progressive anomia presents a challenge for language intervention. We evaluated whether eye gaze patterns during naming could predict anomia for the same items in the near future. We tracked naming accuracy and gaze patterns as patients with semantic (n = 7) or logopenic (n = 2) variants of Primary Progressive Aphasia or amnestic Alzheimer’s Disease (n = 1), named photographs of people and objects. Patients were tested three or more times spaced roughly evenly over an average duration of 19.1 months. Target words named accurately at baseline were retrospectively coded as either known (i.e., consistently named) or vulnerable (i.e., inaccurately or inconsistently named) based on naming accuracy over the study interval. We extracted gaze data corresponding to successful naming attempts and implemented logistic mixed effects models to determine whether common gaze measures could predict each word’s naming status as known or vulnerable. More visual fixations and greater visual fixation dispersion predicted later anomia. These findings suggest that eye tracking may yield a biomarker of the robustness of particular target words to future expressive vocabulary dropout. We discuss the potential utility of this finding for optimizing treatment for progressive anomia.

摘要

进行性失语症中表达词汇丢失的动态和不可预测的性质对语言干预提出了挑战。我们评估了命名期间的眼睛注视模式是否可以预测在不久的将来相同项目的失范症。我们跟踪命名准确性和凝视模式作为语义（n  = 7）或 logopenic（n  = 2）原发性进行性失语症或遗忘性阿尔茨海默病（n = 1), 命名的人物和物体的照片。在 19.1 个月的平均持续时间内，患者接受了 3 次或更多次大致均匀间隔的测试。根据研究区间内的命名准确性，在基线准确命名的目标词被追溯编码为已知（即命名一致）或易受攻击（即命名不准确或不一致）。我们提取了与成功命名尝试相对应的注视数据，并实施了逻辑混合效应模型，以确定常见的注视措施是否可以预测每个单词的命名状态为已知或易受攻击。更多的视觉注视和更大的视觉注视分散预示着后来的失范症。这些发现表明，眼动追踪可能会产生特定目标词对未来表达性词汇丢失的稳健性的生物标记。