Age-related differences in conversational discourse abilities A comparative study

: Conversational discourse (CD) is among the most complex tasks in everyday life and relies on multiple cognitive domains (communicative and executive abilities). Alterations in discourse comprehension and production are often present in pathological aging. However, there is still a need to identify changes in healthy aging. Objetivo: Este estudo tem como objetivo comparar jovens adultos e idosos quanto a frequencia de comportamento comunicativo desviante em uma tarefa de DC utilizando o Procedimento Complementar de Analise do Discurso Conversacional (PCADC), inspirado na tarefa de DC da Bateria Montreal de Avaliacao da Comunicacao. Methods: A total of 95 participants (54 young-adults and 41 older adults) were evaluated. The frequency of communicative behaviors was compared between groups using MANCOVA and Chi-square tests. Results: Young adults showed fewer impairments in expression, pragmatics, cohesion, coherence, comprehension and emotional prosody. Older adults showed higher levels of verbal initiative and had fewer word finding difficulties. Communicative behaviors associated with planning and self-monitoring (e.g. repetition of information and syllabic false starts) appear to be common in the speech of healthy individuals in general. Conclusao: Estudos que avaliem habilidades discursivas e cognitivas sao necessarios para identificar mudancas ​​influenciadas pela idade. Dessa forma, seria possivel propor uma ferramenta de triagem para avaliacao discursiva, bem como programas de intervencao preventiva.