Narrative Discourse in Normal Aging and Neurologically-Impaired Adults

Presents theoretical and empirical information on the effects of normal aging and brain damage on the narrative discourse abilities of older adults. The contributors to the text are international researchers and clinicians in the fields of neuropsychology, speech-language pathology and cognitive psychology. Their contributions have been organized to present the theoretical considerations of narrative discourse, aspects of narrative ability in healthy elderly adults, the effects of focal damage to the right and left cerebral hemispheres, and the effects of diffuse brain damage as seen in Alzheimer's disease. The chapters contain bibliographic references and information on techniques for studying narrative discourse in these populations. This volume is a reference for anyone studying the language abilities of healthy older adults. It should be of interest to speech language pathologists, neoropsychologists and linguists.