Thus, the time limit is irrelevant to deficient word fluency in elderly people. Vocabulary size experiment showed a superiority of elderly people to the young, but retrieving words, especially famous people fs names, is difficult for elderly people. We administered a PET activation study to old and young subjects to observe brain activations during word-fluency tasks. The latter activations may reflect an effort to compensate for the deficient word retrieval in the elderly subjects. Activated regions in retrieving names of man-made objects in elderly and young subjects.
Areas activated in young people are generally small or inactive in elderly people.
The activation above the right Sylvian fissure in the elderly may be compensation for an insufficient activity of the left frontal lobe. Summary of Aging of Language Abilities Aging does not deteriorate all aspects of language. In elderly people the word retrieval ability apparently declines, while abilities of auditory word reception and word reading do not. On the other hand, vocabulary of the elderly shows growth. Other Basic Studies Basic research on mechanisms of word information processing is significant for our department.