Early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease is critical to obtaining treatment, counseling, and planning for the person with ALZ and other forms of dementia and their families. Very few neuropsychological tests are available for assessment of older deaf adults who regularly use both American Sign Language and English. The proposed studies will develop tests and methods for language and cognitive assessment of life-long deaf seniors, will begin to establish the cognitive profile of deaf AD, and will explore the possible effects of deafness, and its associated reduction of exposure to spoken language early vs. late in life on cognitive test performance.
Funding
This research is supported by the National Institute on Aging (AG074928).