Neuropsychological evaluation and cognitive evolution of a bilingual Alzheimer patient

Abstract

We present the case of a university-educated bilingual (Italian-Spanish) Alzheimer patient aged 61. After a neuropsychological assessment carried out at the Applied Psychology Service of the Faculty of Psychology at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), an individualized integral cognitive stimulation program was started that lasted three years. The interest of this case lies in the fact that the progress of this patient in the two languages was followed through a series of cognitive tasks (mainly linguistic and categorization). The results show that, as the illness develops, the patient cannot separate both languages and interferences appear. His first language remains intact for a longer period of time, as studies of this type have shown.