Centre for Policy on Ageing



Humour, irony and sarcasm in severe Alzheimer's dementia — a corrective to retrogenesis?
Author(s)	Inger Moos
Journal title	Ageing and Society, vol 31, part 2, February 2011
Pages	pp 328-346
Source	http://www.journals.cambridge.org/aso
Keywords	Dementia ; Communication ; Communication difficulties ; Jokes [humour] ; Evaluation.
Annotation	Retrogenesis is the process by which degenerating mechanisms in the brain, as found in Alzheimer's disease, reverse the order of acquisition of functions in normal child development, including language. The aim of this study was to analyse the communicative competence of people with moderately severe Alzheimer's disease according to FAST (Functional Assessment Staging of Alzheimer's disease) as to the occurrence of humour, irony and sarcasm in conversations with their professional caregivers. The study used data from an earlier study analysing audio recordings of everyday conversations between nursing home residents in Denmark with Alzheimer's disease and their professional caregivers, and focused on three participants. Concludes that the comprehension and production of humour, irony and sarcasm in the three study participants are correctives to retrogenesis concerning speech and language abilities in severe Alzheimer's disease. (JL).
Accession Number	CPA-110421008 A
Classmark	EA: U: EC: HKG: 4C
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.