Recent research suggests that there are cultural differences in the way English and Italian speakers are affected by dementiarelated language problems. Gorno-Tempini et al. (2019) at the University of California studied 20 English-speaking patients and 18 Italian-speaking patients, all of whom had progressive aphasia, a neuro-degenerative disease which affects areas of the brain linked to language and a feature of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia disorders.
Results showed that, while Englishspeakers with dementia had trouble pronouncing words (involving Broca’s speech area), Italians with dementia did not tend to have pronunciation problems. Instead, they had trouble producing long and grammatically complex sentences (a dysfunction of grammar, linked to Wernicke’s language area).
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