Language decline and language intervention in monolinguals and bilinguals with Alzheimer's Disease

Although Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and every 3 seconds a person in the world develops the disease, little is still known about the exact symptoms that occur at every stage. This is also the case for language; and especially for bilinguals. Importantly, loss of language is often hard to endure for patients, as a lack of fluent speech and communication may cause social isolation. Hence, the current project has three main aims: 1) the longitudinal follow-up of language decline in patients throughout the different stages of AD; 2) including bilinguals as well as monolinguals, whereby bilinguals will be tested for both languages; and 3) setting up a randomised, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled language intervention, in which patients in the experimental condition will perform language exercises, with the goal of preserving/fostering language capacities and stimulating daily communication.