Impoverishment of spontaneous language and the prediction of Alzheimer's disease.

The article by Garrard and colleagues (2005) reported the results of the systematic linguistic analysis of Iris Murdoch's final novel published in the year before the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was made. Garrard and colleagues observed signs of deterioration in her writing, especially in semantic skills and sophistication of vocabulary. Subtle alterations of language were also detected by Brian Butterworth in his analysis of Ronald Reagan's speeches prior to his re-election to the USA presidency in 1984. This was 10 years before the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was made in his case ( The Sunday Times …