This is very interesting. You should publish the data and perhaps compare your monolingual results with those of the bilinguals.

I have examined the discourse practices of individuals with frontotemporal dementia and schizophrenia (case studies and some descriptive language features) using conversation analysis and ethnographic methods. although it might require a step outside your typical field/use of methods, you might consider writing this up for a discourse journal (Discourse Processes, Discourse Studies)

It is an interesting problem. If i can see the data then may i can propose something useful which is also publishable

Sorry I can't be of much help. Our work was on localized stroke patients

Do you have Ethical Approval to use the data for research and to publish it? If not, you won't be able to do this. You can only publish data from the screenings if the participants consented. Having said that, nothing stops you from forming a preliminary hypothesis on the basis of your data, and then seeking consent to gather more data.

Nola~ Often this is how great doctoral dissertations get developed. But if you are looking to create a discussion paper, then first consider who would be listening to such a discussion. Caregivers? SLPs? Other medical personnel? Creating the paper begins with defining your audience.

Yes, read the recent issue of the journal CORTEX and look for the article on Alzheimer's disease, perseveration and memory, by Miozzo, Fischer-Baum, et al. Also follow up on the citations for the article as well. Hugh Buckingham

A next step might also be comparing naming reaction time performance of those diagnosed w Alzheimer D and those with FTD, semantic dementias or the other dementia variants with naming compromise?

Can you do a retrospectively analysis correlating data on latency of naming data with the diagnosis (positive or negative) as well where the subjects currently are with regard to the diagnosis?

Two things,

1. Do you have a score about the level of the demenzia on the patients?

2. If you want, we can talk to design some experiments with acoustic, spectral and cepstral features of speech to do comparisons between healthy and pathological speech signals.

This is potentially good clinical data that could be of interest to many people. However, it is very difficult to produce a research quality paper without ongoing (preferably face to face) supervision and support. My first recommendation would be to see if there is someone (part of the research team?) who has experience in supervision and might be able to work with you. It could turn into a dissertation you use for gaining further qualifications as well as publications.

Secondlly, it is essential (As Dr Wolters explains) to check whether the material you have already collated has adequate legal permissions in place to allow you to analyse the information and publish the results. Maybe you should speak with the people who organised the data collection and your local Research advisors to see whether you have permission from the volunteers to carry out an audit of your findings? (Sometimes an Audit analysis requires a different level of permission than a Research Project). If the permissions are not in place prospectively you may be able to organise something retrospectively -- depending on the local legal situation. This is something that local advice will help with.

If you are able to take things further, the way that you present and analyse your data will depend on the questions you have in mind (and, in part, on the numbers of patients involved). There are a lot of different questions you could ask. Can you show that the tests are sensitive indicators in the people who have progressed to show AD or one of the other degenerative conditions? Do they work as well in people who are bilingual and those who are monolingual? What variables predict success/failure? There are plenty of journals that might be interested in your findings- Prof Buckingham suggests Cortex but (depending on the research questions you ask of your data) you may also want to consider Brain and Language, Language and Cognitive Processes or (if you feel that therapists might learn from your experience) consider one of the specialist therapeutic journals such as the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders.

I wish you the very best with this project!

Thanks to my colleagues who have provided wonderful input regarding my data and unfinished project. Maria Wolters was concerned, and rightly so, regarding ethical approval. Yes, I had clearance from the Institutional Review Boards from the various universities with which I was associated during data collection. Appropriate consent forms are in place for all participants. Rosaleen McCarthy mentioned that this is good clinical data. I agree. At this point, I have not collected data exclusively for clinical populations. My questions were really geared toward whether the tool was useful for health screenings in minority populations. Yes, the test is translated to Spanish, French and English, so it is useful in some bilingual populations.

However, the instrument was developed based upon controls without Alzheimer's and controls with Dementia and other disorders. In addition, MRI results were obtained during speaking tasks for the controls and participants with Alzheimer's.

Regarding Juan Rafael Orozco's questions and comments, no, I do not have scores on dementia patients at this time. I agree that this would be a useful design in the future. It was be very interesting to compare the abnormal and normal speech as Orozco suggests.

Thanks to all the remaining participants who have provided some thoughtful commentary. I am preparing for a conference and involved in some committee work at this time. So, unfortunately, my research will be on hold for a few weeks. I do plan to contact those who were gracious enough to volunteer to look at the data or talk about future research.

Hello Nola, why do you want to write a paper?

Hugh, I will follow up on the article from Cortex that you recommended in February. Debra, you have provided an excellent suggestion re: exploring reaction time for FTDs and other semantic dementias. I do believe that will be a future study once I bring some projects to rest.

Rosaleen, thank you for your detailed response relative to the potential for good clinical data. I can assure you that the permissions are sound for the current data. As a matter-of-fact, the data was collected over a three-year period as part of a post-doctoral project I completed. So, there was review by the Institutional Review Boards in question from two universities, approval from the cooperating agencies with signed permissions, and subject consent for all participants. Regarding your other thoughtful questions and comments, I respond to each one below:

"Can you show that the tests are sensitive indicators in the people who have progressed to show AD or one of the other degenerative conditions?"

Yes, I can demonstrate sensitivity as this was part of original test development. Individuals diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer's type were compared to healthy older adults to establish test norms. MRI results were compared for the standardization population and the original authors of the test developed the criterion scores for determining whether reaction time was slower-than-normal, or abnormal, indicating a need for follow-up. The test has been translated to Spanish as well. I have had the opportunity to screen individuals (with the help of graduate students fluent in Spanish and trained to administer the screener) for Spanish-speaking participants.

Here is some information about the particulars of the test as appears at Pearson, one company that distributes it:

Use the AQT in conjunction with brain imaging (e.g., CT scan, MRI) and other neuro-psychiatric procedures to support an early differential diagnosis of various types of dementia including Alzheimer’s Disease, Lewy body Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and other neurological disorders. Elisabeth H. Wiig, a renowned language expert, and an esteemed group of leaders in neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry and gerontology teamed to develop AQT.

AQT contains rapid, automatic naming (RAN) tasks, verified by rCBF measures to screen for Alzheimer's disease and other parietal impairments.

AQT tasks measure:

Processing speed and automaticity of naming

Cognitive shifts between visual dimensions and semantic fields

Activation of working memory for processing and monitoring

Parietal lobe dysfunction associated with neurogenic disorders.

AQT’s objective measures are based on clocked total-naming time.

Highly reliable (r = .88 – 96) over time and consistent over repeated trials.

Independent of gender differences, education, and cultural-linguistic background

Enables examiners from other cultural-linguistic communities to develop directions for administration and standards for verbal responses that are representative of their language. [Retrieved June 26, 2013 from http://www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=015-8237-269&Mode=summary]

"Do they work as well in people who are bilingual and those who are monolingual?"

The naming tests work well in monolinguals and bilinguals. The tests should be administered in the dominant language of use to obtain the most representative sample.

"What variables predict success/failure?"

1. The primary variable is reaction time, measured in seconds, for unidimensional naming of about 40 objects in a display (i.e., colors, shapes, numbers, letters, animals) to establish a baseline for reaction time, processing the visual information and naming. Reaction time changes predictably overtime, with age. So, if there are significant changes beyond expectations for a given age range--60s, 70s, 80s, (with baseline established, ideally, by 55 for healthy adults), it is a behavioral indicator of changes in recognition and word retrieval. Another series of naming tasks involves dual-naming (i.e. color-number, color-shape, color-letter, color-animal. There are alternative strategies for individuals who are color-blind and some tests involving color might be omitted.

" There are plenty of journals that might be interested in your findings- Prof Buckingham suggests Cortex but (depending on the research questions you ask of your data) you may also want to consider Brain and Language, Language and Cognitive Processes or (if you feel that therapists might learn from your experience) consider one of the specialist therapeutic journals such as the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders"

Regarding your recommendation of Journals, thank you!

Silvia, in regard to your question: "Why do you want to write the paper?" I do feel there are some useful clinical insights for speech-language pathologists. In addition, I have some anecdotal information that is interesting and informative in terms of minority health issues. These are my primary reasons. Further, I think I need to "clear the deck", in other words, develop a new methodology, starting fresh with questions directly related to clinical uses of the reaction time screening.

Hi, Sylvia. I do hope you see this post and respond. I want to write a paper to share my experiences regarding different responses of individuals to preventative care and participation in health screenings. This is a secondary focus. My primary purpose is to share the results of using The Quick Test by Elisabeth Wiig to detect early signs of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's in adults. I believe the AQT Test has some advantages over an alternative text,The Mini Mental Test, which involves more language.

I would be happy to talk to you about plans for integrating your data into a potentially publishable manuscript. You can contact me at [email protected]. You may have guessed from the e-mail address that I am an author of A Quick Test (AQT). I have access to full published research papers that feature AQT as one of the behavioral measures. That may save you time and provide you with ideas. I would be available for 'mentoring' via Skype.

Elisabeth Wiig

Hi, Elisabeth!

Please excuse the long delay in getting back to the very string I initiated. It would be my honor and pleasure to again have your professional guidance. I will email you!

I like cooperate with you. I am working on Mini-cog

Please excuse the protracted period for my reply.  Could you please inform regarding your work on the Minicog?