
Long-winded speech could be early sign of Alzheimer's disease, says study - Hooke
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/21/long-winded-speech-could-be-early-sign-of-alzheimers-says-study
======
Declanomous
> Worsening “mental imprecision” was the key, rather than people simply being
> verbose, however. “Many individuals may be long-winded, that’s not a
> concern,” said Sherman.

For a minute I was worried I might be losing my mind. Thankfully I've always
been garrulous, though I'm sure other people don't see that as a blessing.

~~~
notheguyouthink
Worrying for me still, heh. I'm both long winded and imprecise as hell. I
constantly forget names of things / people. Though, i do suppose it's limited
to that. Ask me to remember what something is called, who acted in what movie,
etc and i fail to remember the specific names.

However i can remember the details of the movie, where i am, how to get
places, where things are stored, etc. My memory worries me.

~~~
ashark
I have a terrible memory for names, and (relatedly?) have awful auto-
biographiical memory, which is apparently a distinct thing from other forms of
memory. I've got an average-ish memory otherwise.

I'd have trouble giving you specifics of what I did last week, for instance,
and I'd be lucky if I could come up with more than one or two things from last
month. Last year is a blur—I could come up with a handful of details, mostly
anchored to holidays since it's easy to prompt myself with "I know Christmas
happened, what did I do for that?" and the like. Forming parts of my life into
any kind of narrative is incredibly challenging. I _hated_ those "what did you
do over the Summer?" writing prompts elementary school teachers love to give
the first week back.

Maybe your situation is similar. I don't have a diagnosis or anything, but
pretty sure I'm affected by this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overgeneral_autobiographical_m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overgeneral_autobiographical_memory)

~~~
QuantumGravy
Has that affected your career in any way, especially when interviewing?

It has certainly made interviewing hell for me. "Tell me about yourself," they
say. My best attempts at explaining anything I've done sound like I'm spouting
off random BS, even if it's as basic as how my ride in was or what I had for
breakfast.

~~~
ashark
OH yeah, though (as you note) mostly interviewing. Those "tell me about a time
when something went wrong" or "tell me about a time you had a conflict with
someone" sorts of questions are really stressful. I damn near have to make
something up (when prepping, not on the fly) to have anything resembling a
satisfying answer to them. I just _cannot_ easily turn my experiences into
narratives, most of the time.

~~~
ethbro
... I honestly can't tell if people in this thread are trying to be long-
winded or not.

------
rconti
"... I was wearing an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time..."

------
hoprocker
"Ronald Reagan started to have a decline in the number of unique words with
repetitions of statements over time,” said Sherman. “[He] started using more
fillers, more empty phrases, like ‘thing’ or ‘something’ or things like
‘basically’ or ‘actually’ or ‘well’."

Seems like history might be coming around again on this one.

~~~
Nomentatus
Had this thought within the hour listening to the business roundtable Trump
hosted (on Youtube), before reading this article. Saw a very old interview on
Charlie Rose yesterday and he (Trump) seemed sharper then.

------
pklausler
Well, that's a relief. I'm getting older, but I've actually been speaking
less, mostly because it's a waste of time to speak when nobody is actually
paying attention.

~~~
trendia
Well, I read your comment, if that's worth anything.

------
Mikeb85
Assuming this is talking about Trump and politicians in general (since it's
the Guardian and brought up Reagan), repetition is key in politics (or
business) to drive home a point. How many times have we seen a product release
that repeats ad nauseum, but it's deliberate. Also, being imprecise avoids
having to stick to a promise. While I wouldn't say it's a great trait, it's
probably still preferable to a politician who makes explicit promises and
breaks them.

Anyhow, I have no doubt that it could be a precursor to Alzheimer's, but long-
windedness can also be a conscious decision; it convinces enough people that
you must know what you're talking about, since you're spending so much time
talking about it.

Concise speech using appropriate vocabulary is overrated - it just flies over
most people's heads, and if you don't pad your speeches with fluff, they'll
mistake conciseness with having nothing to say. Skirting around issues whilst
saying nothing using many words is usually a conscious choice among
politicians and businessmen.

------
torrance
When I read this, I assumed it was an indirect jab at Trump.

~~~
buckbova
Of course it is. That's why it's published now and any evidence is cited from
2004[1] and 2016[2].

[1]
[http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041129/full/news041129-4.htm...](http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041129/full/news041129-4.html)

[2] [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/02/a-decade-
of-...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/02/a-decade-of-deadlock-
over-alzheimers-treatment-may-be-drawing-to-a-close)

------
burntrelish1273
Interesting but probably not Alzheimer's related: ever since my 60's-yo mother
had a stroke (ICH) about 2 years ago, she now uses the "well" most often as
embolalia when contemplating something because it takes her more mental effort
now. Not sure how it relates to the possibility of an elevated Alzheimer's
risk.

Clarity of thought is speaking less and saying more, which is a constant
struggle to maintain health and energy against the inexorable march of
entropy, per genes and habits.

------
paulpauper
“Fred visited Bob after his graduation”

such a sentence could be ambiguous because it's not obvious who graduated.
Some may argue it's bob

~~~
debacle
Some may argue that it's neither Fred nor Bob.

~~~
Kluny
Some say they're still arguing.

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sofaofthedamned
This is basically every academic I know, including the missus. I daren't show
her this...

------
w00tw00tw00t
Long winded title could be a sign of long winded article

------
melling
Third time is a charm?

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=alzheimer&sort=byPopularity&pr...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=alzheimer&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=pastWeek&type=story)

~~~
pimlottc
There's nothing wrong with resubmitting an article, as long as it's not done
excessively.

~~~
melling
I never said there was something wrong. I simply pointed out that it took 3
times in 24 hours before the story gained traction. It was an interesting
story. I'm glad it finally got traction.

