This long-term project examines how our language skills change with normal and pathological ageing (in the form of Parkinson's disease). We are particularly interested in what we call "deliberative" language processes - those that enable us to control and manipulate our automatic language processes. We find that while automatic processes are relatively spared by language, deliberative processes are disproportionately impaired. We relate this impairment to age-related decline in executive processing associated with the frontal lobes of the brain. We observe age-related language impairments across a range of tasks, including description, conversation, metalinguistic skills such as phonological awareness, and theory of mind.
We are most grateful to the Parkinson's Disease Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh for funding for this project.
For further information and preprints of our research, please email Professor Trevor Harley.
Staff:
Professor Trevor Harley
Dr Siobhan MacAndrew
Dr Lesley Jessiman
If you would like to take part in this research, please contact Dr Lesley Jessiman.
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