Proverb and idiom processing impairments in Moroccan Arabic patients with Alzheimer’s disease

This study investigates the comprehension of idioms and proverbs in Moroccan Arabic speakers with and without Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Ten individuals diagnosed with probable AD and ten neurologically healthy controls participated in oral explanation and plausibility judgment tasks. Results indicate that participants with AD experienced more difficulties in figurative language than controls. Moreover, processing difficulties were more pronounced for implausible sentences in both groups. Our findings did not support the prediction that non-decomposable idioms are accessed more easily than decomposable ones. Error analysis revealed that interpretations by AD patients were predominantly literal (for both idiom types), suggesting impaired suppression of literal meaning during figurative interpretation. These findings underscore the importance of considering comprehension tasks accuracy as well as error analyses for a comprehensive linguistic profile in AD patients.