The Hindu : International : Book reveals onset of Alzheimer's in author

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 02, 2004

International

International

Book reveals onset of Alzheimer's in author

LONDON, DEC. 1. The British author, Iris Murdoch's last novel, ``Jackson's Dilemma", is about a mysterious disappearance. But it tells another story, according to neuroscientists today. It subtly reveals the onset of Alzheimer's disease before the author herself could have known.

Peter Garrard of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College, London, and colleagues compared early novels of Iris Murdoch — "Under the Net" and "The Sea, The Sea" with her final work, and found that her vocabulary had dwindled and her language became simpler.

Alzheimer's is difficult to establish with certainty until after death, but the evidence was there in her last work, diagnosed by computer-based analysis of the use of words, Dr. Garrard reports in the December issue of the journal Brain.

"There is a stage at which Alzheimer's disease has not been detected and isn't manifesting itself in the day-to-day behaviour of the patient, and yet is still impacting on cognition," he said.

Last novel

Iris Murdoch published her last novel in 1995, and it got a rough ride from many critics. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's the following year at the age of 76.

Using concordance software, they analysed the types of words in each novel and their richness.

Iris Murdoch's husband, the critic John Bayley, said: "I told them I had felt all along that there was something different about Iris' last novel,' Prof Bayley said, `that it was moving but strange in many ways."

Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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