Journal of Neuropsychology (2015) © 2015 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com ‘Language of the past’ – Exploring past tense disruption during autobiographical narration in neurodegenerative disorders Muireann Irish 1,2,3 *, Jody Kamminga 1,2 , Donna R. Addis 4 , Stephen Crain 3,5 , Rosalind Thornton 3,5 , John R. Hodges 2,3,6 and Olivier Piguet 2,3,6 1 School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia 2 Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 3 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 4 School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, The University of Auckland, New Zealand 5 Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 6 School of Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Compromised retrieval of autobiographical memory (ABM) is well established in neurodegenerative disorders. The recounting of autobiographical events is inextricably linked to linguistic knowledge, yet no study to date has investigated whether tense use during autobiographical narration is disrupted in dementia syndromes. This study investigated the incidence of correct past tense use during ABM narration in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD, n = 10) and semantic dementia (SD, n = 10) in comparison with healthy older Controls (n = 10). Autobiographical narratives were analysed for episodic content (internal/external) and classified according to tense use (past/present). Across both patient groups, use of the past tense was significantly compromised relative to Controls, with increased levels of off-target present tense verbs observed. Voxel-based morphometry analyses based on structural MRI revealed differential associations between past tense use and regions of grey matter intensity in the brain. Bilateral temporal cortices were implicated in the SD group, whereas frontal, lateral, and medial temporal regions including the right hippocampus emerged in AD. This preliminary study provides the first demonstration of the disruption of specific linguistic constructs during autobiographical narration in AD and SD. Future studies are warranted to clarify at what point in the disease trajectory such deficits in tense use emerge, and whether these deficits are a product or contributing factor in memory disruption in these syndromes. The capacity to retrieve self-referential and personally defining events from the past represents an important expression of the episodic memory system. Autobiographical memories (ABM) are typically imbued with rich visual imagery and emotional salience and *Correspondence should be addressed to Muireann Irish, Neuroscience Research Australia, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia (email: m.irish@neura.edu.au). DOI:10.1111/jnp.12073 1