Lenguaje y envejecimientoUna aproximación cognitiva
ISSN: 0214-3550
Year of publication: 1994
Volume: 6
Issue: 2
Pages: 189-212
Type: Article
More publications in: Cognitiva
Abstract
This paper reviews the literature on linguistic disorders in normal aging. Various aspects of linguistic levels and skills are analysed and related to other cognitive systems such as attention and memory. The question of whether language impairments in the elderly are modular or central is also considered. We suggest a non-modular hypothesis to explain the decline of linguistic abilities in aged people: age erodes all linguistic levels and skills due to deterioration of the attentional system. The neural basis of such impairment might be disturbance of the excitation-inhibition process (Luria, 1976), i.e. disturbance of the critical level of cerebral activity in multiple areas of the cortex (Damasio, 1989).