The multimodal approach where cognition is embodied in language, perceptual, motor, and emotional systems is a widely agreed theoretical framework for conceptual representations. However, the lack of work supporting this view of cognition in healthy and pathological aging stands in stark contrast with the ongoing need to understand the factors that uncover semantic degradation in brain pathologies. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of perceptual strength (PS) - i.e., the extent to which a word can be experienced by multiple sensory modalities - in visual word recognition in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thirty-six healthy participants, 22 participants in the mild stage of AD (AD1) and 20 in the moderate stage (AD2) took part in a lexical decision task with two conditions: words with high vs low PS words. Results showed an interaction effect only between healthy controls and AD1 individuals, revealing that the latter were faster in processing high PS words in contrast to low PS words, while this was not the case for healthy individuals. Furthermore, it was specifically the ratings of the neuropsychological executive and lexical-semantic assessments that predicted these results. However, no results were observed for AD2 participants, suggesting that lexical-semantic degradation was too severe to reveal a PS effect. This study demonstrates the importance of considering the perceptual dimension when examining the conceptual system and opens up new avenues in the exploration of semantic impairment in AD.

认知体现在语言、知觉、运动和情感系统中的多模态方法是概念表征的广泛认可的理论框架。然而，缺乏支持这种健康和病态衰老认知观点的工作与持续需要了解揭示大脑病理学语义退化的因素形成鲜明对比。本研究的目的是探索感知强度 (PS) 的影响 - 即，一个词可以通过多种感官方式体验的程度 - 在阿尔茨海默氏病 (AD) 的视觉词识别中。36 名健康参与者，22 名处于 AD 轻度阶段 (AD1) 的参与者和 20 名处于中度阶段 (AD2) 的参与者参与了一项词汇决策任务，有两个条件：高 PS 词与低 PS 词。结果显示仅在健康对照和 AD1 个体之间存在交互作用，表明后者在处理高 PS 词方面比低 PS 词更快，而健康个体则不然。此外，正是神经心理学执行和词汇语义评估的评级预测了这些结果。然而，没有观察到 AD2 参与者的结果，这表明词汇语义退化太严重而无法揭示 PS 效应。这项研究证明了在检查概念系统时考虑感知维度的重要性，并为探索 AD 中的语义障碍开辟了新途径。而健康人的情况并非如此。此外，正是神经心理学执行和词汇语义评估的评级预测了这些结果。然而，没有观察到 AD2 参与者的结果，这表明词汇语义退化太严重而无法揭示 PS 效应。这项研究证明了在检查概念系统时考虑感知维度的重要性，并为探索 AD 中的语义障碍开辟了新途径。而健康人的情况并非如此。此外，正是神经心理学执行和词汇语义评估的评级预测了这些结果。然而，没有观察到 AD2 参与者的结果，这表明词汇语义退化太严重而无法揭示 PS 效应。这项研究证明了在检查概念系统时考虑感知维度的重要性，并为探索 AD 中的语义障碍开辟了新途径。这表明词汇语义退化太严重而无法揭示 PS 效应。这项研究证明了在检查概念系统时考虑感知维度的重要性，并为探索 AD 中的语义障碍开辟了新途径。这表明词汇语义退化太严重而无法揭示 PS 效果。这项研究证明了在检查概念系统时考虑感知维度的重要性，并为探索 AD 中的语义障碍开辟了新途径。