How Alzheimer’s may impact your writing ability

How does one’s writing change due to dementia? Interesting research was recently published that analyzed the late author Terry Pratchett’s writing over time to see if it changed due to the rare form of Alzheimer’s that he had.

Pratchett died in 2015. He had been diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy and went public with his diagnosis, becoming an advocate to raise awareness for the disease and increase research efforts, according to an article published in The Conversation. Researchers in the UK conducted a lexical analysis of Pratchett’s novels and published their findings in the Brain Sciences journal.

The researchers focused on “lexical diversity” which in layman’s terms means diversity in word choice, and specifically examined the usage and variety of adjectives. What they found was a notable decline in adjective diversity in Pratchett’s latest novels. They pinpointed the first significant decline approximately 10 years before Pratchett was diagnosed.

While their findings are intriguing, the researchers were quick to note that linguistic analysis is not a standalone diagnostic tool for dementia, and results would vary depending upon a person’s education and other factors. But for authors, it could potentially be a helpful tool. Pratchett is not the first author whose work received a lexical analysis to detect cognitive changes; Iris Murdoch and Agatha Christie’s works have also been analyzed and a notable decline in vocabulary size and lexical diversity were noted.

Lexical analysis could emerge as a helpful diagnostic tool for Alzheimer’s and other dementias because the average person already produces a good deal of content in their daily lives, from texts to emails to social media posts. For us writers, we have a large amount of material that can be analyzed. Most promising is how early such an analysis may be able to detect subtle cognitive changes. Early detection is critical when it comes to Alzheimer’s, as the current treatments on the market work best for those in the early stages of the disease.