Fossard, Marion

2020, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, Macoir, Joël, Laforce, Robert

Purpose
Better performance for actions compared to objects has been reported in the semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). This study investigated the influence of the assessment task (naming, semantic picture matching) over the dissociation between objects and actions.
Method
Ten individuals with svPPA and 17 matched controls completed object and action naming tests, and object and action semantic picture matching tests. Performance was compared between the svPPA and control groups, within the svPPA group, and for each participant with svPPA versus the control group individually.
Results
Compared to controls, participants with svPPA were impaired on object and action naming, and object and action semantic picture matching. As a group, participants with svPPA had an advantage for actions over objects and for semantic picture matching tests over naming tests. Eight participants had a better performance for actions compared to objects in naming, with three showing a significant difference. Nine participants had a better performance for actions compared to objects in semantic picture matching, with six showing a significant difference. For objects, semantic picture matching was better than naming in nine participants, with five showing a significant difference. For actions, semantic picture matching was better than naming in all 10 participants, with nine showing a significant difference.
Conclusion
The nonverbal processing of actions, as assessed with a semantic picture matching test, is an area of relative strength in svPPA. Clinical implications for assessment planning and interpretation and theoretical implications for current models of semantic cognition are discussed.

2016, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, Laforce Jr., Robert, Bier, Nathalie, Macoir, Joël

Background: Only a few studies have focused on derivational morphology in semantic dementia (SD). The productive and componential nature of derivational morphology as well as recent findings in psycholinguistics suggest that semantic cognition would be involved in the production and comprehension of derivational morphemes and derived words. Therefore, participants with SD might present impairment in derivational morphology.
Aims: This study aims to specify semantic cognition’s involvement in the production and comprehension of derivational morphemes and morphologically complex words in SD participants. This involvement was considered in relation to the production of morphologically complex words, the comprehension of the meaning conveyed by morphemes, and the capacity to distinguish between words with a real vs. an apparent morphological structure.
Methods and Procedures: Ten French-speaking SD participants completed three tasks of derivational morphology. Their performances were compared to those of a group of 20 age-, gender- and education-matched adults without cognitive impairment.
Outcomes and Results: Compared with participants of the control group, SD participants had more difficulty producing nouns derived from verbs that follow less-frequent patterns of root allomorphy, while their performance was less affected when they could rely on basic morphological decomposition/composition abilities. Participants with SD also had more difficulties to match derived words and pseudo-words to a definition and to distinguish between pairs of real morphological antonyms and pseudo-morphological non-antonyms.
Conclusions: These results support the involvement of semantic cognition in the validation of morpheme combinations and in derivational morpheme representation. Difficulties in the production and comprehension of derived words and derivational morphemes are another of the many consequences of central semantic impairment that characterises SD. More studies are needed to develop tests and further characterise the involvement of semantic cognition in derivational morphology.

2015, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, Macoir, Joël, Université Laval, Wilson, Maximiliano, De Saussure, Louis, Démonet, Jean-François, Gonnerman, Laura

Introduction : Plusieurs modèles accordent un rôle à la mémoire sémantique dans les opérations qui sous-tendent la morphologie flexionnelle et la morphologie dérivationnelle. Toutefois, plus d’études sont nécessaire pour comprendre la nature et la portée du rôle joué par cette mémoire dans la morphologie. Objectifs : Cette thèse a pour but de spécifier l’implication de la mémoire sémantique dans les aspects structurels (combinaison des morphèmes, formation de mots morphologiquement complexes), et conceptuels (traitement du sens contenu dans les morphèmes) de la morphologie flexionnelle et dérivationnelle. Méthode : L’implication de la mémoire sémantique a été examinée dans trois études menées auprès de personnes atteintes de démence sémantique (DS) et de participants ne présentant pas d’atteintes cognitives. Résultats : Contrairement au groupe contrôle, les personnes atteintes de DS ont de la difficulté à produire et à comprendre les informations sémantiques transmises par les morphèmes flexionnels. Elles ont également tendance à préférer une alternative régularisée à un verbe pseudo-régulier correctement fléchi. En morphologie dérivationnelle, les personnes atteintes de DS ont plus de difficultés à produire des mots dérivés quand la relation entre le mot de départ et le mot cible est moins transparente. Ces difficultés donnent lieu à la production de pseudo-mots morphologiquement complexes. Les personnes atteintes de DS ont une sensibilité normale à la compatibilité grammaticale des morphèmes, mais ont des difficultés à comprendre le contenu sémantique transmis par les affixes dérivationnels, ainsi qu’à traiter le changement de sens entraîné par ces affixes sur un mot de base. Enfin, les capacités de mémoire sémantique, telles qu’évaluées par un ensemble de tests standardisés, sont un prédicteur significatif de la performance dans les deux domaines de la morphologie. Conclusion : Le rôle de la mémoire sémantique dans la morphologie prend plusieurs formes. Elle sous-tend la représentation du contenu sémantique transmis par les morphèmes, ainsi que la représentation des mots présentant plus de propriétés idiosyncratiques. Par conséquent, l’atteinte de la mémoire sémantique entraîne des difficultés de morphologie variées. Ces résultats ont plusieurs implications pour les modèles de la morphologie, et la prise en charge des troubles de mémoire sémantique., Introduction: Several models claim that semantic memory plays a role in the operations that underlie inflectional and derivational morphology. However, more studies are needed to understand how and to what extent semantic memory is involved in morphology. Aims: This thesis dissertation has the aim to specify the involvement of semantic memory in structural (morpheme combinations, morphologically complex word formation) and conceptual (processing of the morphemes’ meaning) aspects of inflectional and derivational morphology. Method: Semantic memory’s involvement in morphology was examined in three studies conducted with individuals presenting semantic dementia (SD) and people without cognitive impairment. Results: Contrary to the control group, individuals with SD show difficulties in the production and comprehension of semantic information conveyed by inflectional morphemes. They also tend to prefer a regularised alternative over a correctly inflected pseudo-regular verb. In derivational morphology, individuals with SD have more difficulties to produce derived words when the relation between the word given as starting point and the goal word is less transparent. These difficulties result in the production of morphologically complex pseudo-words. Individuals with SD present normal sensitivity to morphemes’ grammatical compatibility, but they have difficulties to understand the semantic content of derivational affixes and to process the change in meaning that they induce on a base word. Semantic memory capacities, as assessed with an array of standardised tests, are a significant predictor of performance in both domains of morphology. Conclusion: Semantic memory’s role in morphology takes many forms. Semantic memory underlies the representation of morphemes’ semantic content and of words that present idiosyncratic properties. Hence, semantic impairment causes a variety of morphological difficulties. These results have several implications for models of morphology and for the care of semantic memory impairments.

2012, Macoir, Joël, Fossard, Marion, Saint-Pierre, Marie-Catherine, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie

Phonological dyslexia is a written language disorder characterized by poor reading of nonwords when compared with relatively preserved ability in reading real words. There are two main theoretical proposals to explain this deficit: disruption of phonological processing or disruption to the nonlexical reading route affecting the grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules (GPC). In this study, we report a single-case study of a mild aphasic patient with acquired phonological dyslexia. His ability was unimpaired for reading words, as well as in a wide range of tasks requiring the activation and explicit manipulation of phonological representations. He could also read every nonword with consistent GPC rules, whilst he was impaired for those with context-sensitive conversion rules, a pattern of performance never reported before. The implications of these results for theoretical explanations of phonological dyslexia are discussed, as well as the contribution of the patient’s concomitant executive deficits to his performance in reading.

2018, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Pythoud, Pauline, Koenig-Bruhin, Monica, Fossard, Marion

Inflectional morphology difficulties are typically reported in non-fluent aphasia with agrammatism, but a growing number of studies show that they can also be present in fluent aphasia. In agrammatism, morphological difficulties are conceived as the consequence of impaired phonological encoding and would affect regular verbs more than irregular verbs. However, studies show that inflectional morphology difficulties concern both regular and irregular verbs, and that their origin could be more conceptual/semantic in nature. Additionally, studies report more pronounced impairments for the processing of the past tense compared to other tenses. The goal of this study was to characterize the impairment of inflectional morphology in fluent aphasia. RY, a 69-year-old man with chronic fluent aphasia completed a short neuropsychological and language battery and three experimental tasks of inflectional morphology. The tasks assessed the capacity to select the correct inflected form of a verb based on time information, to access the time information included in an inflectional morpheme, and to produce verbs with tense inflection. His performance was compared to a group of five adults without language impairments. Results showed that RY had difficulties selecting the correct inflected form of a verb, accessing time information transmitted by inflectional morphemes, and producing inflected verbs. His difficulties affected both regular and irregular verbs, and verbs in the present, past, and future tenses. The performance also shows the influence of processing limitations over the production and comprehension of inflectional morphology. More studies of inflectional morphology in fluent aphasia are needed to understand the origin of difficulties.

2016, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, Houde, M., Laforce, R., Macoir, Joël

Although there is growing interest in inflectional morphology in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA), derivational morphology has rarely been studied in this population. This study reports the performance of N.G., a 72-year-old-woman with svPPA in a verb production task designed to entail morphological processing (composition, decomposition) and self-appraisal of her productions. N.G. demonstrated an over-reliance on morphological processing and failures in her appraisal of root/affix combinations that resulted in the production of morphological paraphasias and neologisms. Her performance in lexical decision of verbs and pseudo-verbs points to the involvement of semantic impairment in these difficulties.

2013, Macoir, Joël, Fossard, Marion, Mérette, Chantal, Langlois, Mélanie, Chantal, Sophie, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie

According to the dominant view in the literature, basal ganglia do not play a direct role in language but are involved in cognitive control required by linguistic and non-linguistic processing. In Parkinson's disease, basal ganglia impairment leads to motor symptoms and language deficits; those affecting the production of verbs have been frequently explored. According to a controversial theory, basal ganglia play a specific role in the conjugation of regular verbs as compared to irregular verbs. We report the results of 15 patients with Parkinson's disease in experimental conjugation tasks. They performed below healthy controls but their performance did not differ for regular and irregular verbs. These results confirm that basal ganglia are involved in language processing but do not play a specific role in verb production.

2016, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Macoir, Joël, Laforce Jr., Robert, Bier, Nathalie, Fossard, Marion

Studies on inflectional morphology in semantic dementia (SD) have focused on the contrast between the regular and the irregular English past-tense. These studies aimed to contrast the claims of single- and dual-mechanism theories. However, both theories can account for impaired production of irregular verbs observed in SD. According to the dual-mechanism theory, this impairment is related to word-retrieval difficulties, while according to single-mechanism theory it is the consequence of semantic impairment. However, authors suggest that it is time to envision a broader role for semantic memory in the production of semantically encoded aspects of inflectional morphology. This study reports the performance of 10 French-speaking patients with SD in three tasks of inflectional morphology. Their performances were compared to those of a group of 20 age-, gender- and education-matched adults without cognitive impairment. Results show that SD patients had difficulties producing tense and person inflection in verbs and pseudo-verbs, whether regular or pseudo-regular. In a second task in which participants were directly exposed to regularity manipulations, SD patients tended to choose a more typical or predictable alternative over a correctly inflected verb. Results of the third task show that their difficulties in producing semantically encoded aspects of inflection, such as tense, are related to difficulties to understand the semantic content conveyed by inflectional morphemes. Overall, these results support the claim that semantic impairment can cause morphological deficits that do not only affect irregular verbs, but that also have impacts on the production and comprehension of semantic information conveyed by inflectional morphemes.

2015, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, Macoir, Joël

Des recommandations consensuelles donnant une description des critères permettant de poser le diagnostic des trois variantes d’aphasie primaire progressive (APP) ont été publiées en 2011. Depuis leur publication, ces recommandations ont fait l’objet de critiques qui ont récemment mené à la proposition de leur révision. Cet article propose une description des ensembles de critères qui ont précédé les recommandations consensuelles utilisées actuellement, ainsi qu’un état de la question quant aux différentes limites et controverses entourant la description du profil langagier des trois variantes d’APP. Ces controverses seront examinées sous l’angle de la description des manifestations centrales de chaque variante, de leur diagnostic différentiel, des liens entre les différentes entités cliniques et leur pathologie sous-jacente, ainsi que de l’évolution des profils langagiers. Enfin, cet article propose des perspectives quant à l’évaluation du langage dans les APP qui ont plusieurs implications pour la pratique clinique et la recherche.

2013, Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie, Fossard, Marion, St-Pierre Catherine, Macoir, Joël

Phonological dyslexia is a written language disorder characterized by poor reading of nonwords when compared with relatively preserved ability in reading real words. In this study, we report the case of FG, a 74-year-old man with phonological dyslexia. The nature and origin of his reading impairment were assessed using tasks involving activation and explicit manipulation of phonological representations as well as reading of words and nonwords in which the nature and complexity of grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules (GPC rules) were manipulated. FG also underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment battery in which he showed impaired performance in tests exploring verbal working memory and executive functions. FG showed no phonological impairment, and his performance was also largely unimpaired for reading words, with no effect of concreteness, grammatical class, morphological complexity, length or nature and complexity of the GPC rules. However, he showed substantial difficulties when asked to read nonwords with contextual GPC rules. The contribution of FG’s executive deficits to his performance in reading is discussed.