加齢またはアルツハイマー病が語彙・意味機能に及ぼす影響 : 意味的プライミング法による検討

This study aims to clarify the influences of aging and AD on lexical-semantics by assigning a semantic priming paradigm. The following participants are included in the study: 30 young students, 22 early elderly, 19 late elderly, and 14 AD patients. The participants are asked to perform lexical decision tasks. Targets are high-frequency concrete words or nonwords. The primes are controlled with regard to their semantic relevance to the targets as follows: Association (e.g., king - lion), Superordination (beast - lion), Coordination (tiger - lion), Shared feature (eyes - lion), Distinctive feature (mane - lion), or Neutral (XXXX – lion). The participants have to decide whether the stimulus is a real word or not as correctly and as quickly as possible when the targets appeared on a monitor. As the Results, the mean reaction times (RTs) of the elderly groups are significantly longer than those of the young group, and the RTs of the AD group are even longer than those of the elderly groups. In the young and the elderly groups, the RTs for all the related-prime conditions are significantly shorter than those for the neutral-prime conditions (priming effects). The priming effects appears to be greater in the elderly groups. However, when the RTs are taken into consideration (priming rates), the gains are equivalent among young and elderly groups. In the AD group, priming effects are not observed, and noticeable individual differences in the priming rate are seen. The above findings suggest that lexical-semantics are generally preserved from aging. We also discusses that lexical-semantics are impaired in AD, and the diversity of the impairments may be the essence of AD

Analysis of Causal Models of Diet for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Receiving Particle Beam Therapy : Aiming to Increase Appetite

本研究は、粒子線治療を受ける頭頸部がん患者を対象として、食欲を向上するための食事に関する因果モデルを明らかにすることを目的とした。データ収集は147 名に対して食事に関する質問紙調査を40GyE の時点で実施し、構造方程式モデリングを用いて分析した。40 GyE の因果モデルは、時間的関係から【嗜好性によるおいしさ】と【口腔内を労りながらの食欲の向上】の間に直接因子として【口溶けの良い食感によるおいしさ】【あっさりとした味付けと風味豊かな匂いによるおいしさ】、間接因子として【刺激の少ない温度と滑らかな食形態によるおいしさ】【献立全体の工夫によるおいしさ】の媒介変数を位置づけてパスを設定した。さらにこのモデルでは、直接因子として【時間帯で変わる食事のおいしさ】が【口腔内を労りながらの食欲の向上】に影響するという因果関係も認められた。因果モデルの適合度指標は、GFI、AGFI がいずれも0.85 以上、RMSEA においても0.08 未満であり、モデル適合度は良好であった。以上より、因果モデルに示す特徴は、食欲の向上に資することが示唆された。departmental bulletin pape