back to the Publication Alerts menuGarrard, Peter, Lisa M. Maloney, John R. Hodges, and Karalyn Patterson. "The Effects of Very Early Alzheimer's Disease on the Characteristics of Writing by a Renowned Author." Brain, epublication ahead of print, December 1, 2004.
Garrard et al. find evidence that the prose in Iris Murdoch's final novel was influenced by Alzheimer's disease. Garrard et al. report that Murdoch's final novel manifests less lexical diversity than found in her early and mid-career novels. In her final novel, Murdoch uses a more restricted vocabulary than in previous works, a finding that is consistent with the impact of early Alzheimer's disease on cognitive performance. Garrard et al. also look for syntactical changes across Murdoch's writings, but the findings are inconclusive.