A series of neuropsychological tests covering four broad areas: orientation, memory, linguistic function and visuospatial functions, was administered to 93 patients with aphasia and the results were compared with the data obtained from 91 patients with mild to moderate dementia (Sasanuma et al, 1987) in order to explore differences in performance between the two diagnostic groups. Major findings include the following:
(1) A group of neuropsychological tests revealed a remarkably different pattern of deficits between the patients with aphasia and the patients with dementia.
(2) The aphasic group showed significantly higher means for orientation, all the tests of visuospatial functions and retention of information, compared with the dementia group. However, their performance for the tests of linguistic function were significantly low compared with the demented group.
(3) The pattern of deficits for each test varied depending on the type of aphasia.
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