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Mermi Dibek D, Eraslan Boz H, Öztura İ, Baklan B. Investigation of the Effect of Antiseizure Medications on Cognition in Patients With Epilepsy. Clin EEG Neurosci 2024:15500594241266283. [PMID: 39034307 DOI: 10.1177/15500594241266283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/23/2024]
Abstract
Background. The effect of antiseizure medications (ASMs) on cognition varies depending on the type of ASM. We aimed to investigate the effects of ASMs on patients with epilepsy based on the conflicting findings in the literature. Methods. Patients diagnosed with epilepsy who were taking ASMs were included. All patients underwent a neuropsychiatric assessment, Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, and general psychopathological tests. The patients were divided into polytherapy and monotherapy groups. Subgroups were categorized according to the type of ASMs, dosage, and duration of monotherapy. Results. Ninety-seven patients were included in this study. The polytherapy group showed a significant decrease in attention, total learning, and interpretation of proverbs compared to the monotherapy group. In the monotherapy group, carbamazepine use had a moderate positive correlation with working memory (r = .669; P = .034), and a strong negative correlation with maintaining attention (r = -.740; P = .014). The duration of levetiracetam monotherapy was negatively correlated with verbal memory (immediate recall r = -.436, P = .038; free recall r = .426, P = .043) and negatively weakly correlated with naming performance (r = -.488, P = .025). Conclusion. The study showed polytherapy may affect verbal and working memory. Carbamazepine may affect working memory and the maintenance of attention in a dose-dependent manner. Levetiracetam may cause impairments in verbal memory and naming, depending on the duration of usage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dilara Mermi Dibek
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Dokuz Eylul University Medical Faculty Balcova, İzmir, Turkey
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Basaksehir Cam and Sakura City Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
| | | | - İbrahim Öztura
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Dokuz Eylul University Medical Faculty Balcova, İzmir, Turkey
| | - Barış Baklan
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Dokuz Eylul University Medical Faculty Balcova, İzmir, Turkey
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Herault C, Ovando-Tellez M, Lebuda I, Kenett YN, Beranger B, Benedek M, Volle E. Creative connections: the neural correlates of semantic relatedness are associated with creativity. Commun Biol 2024; 7:810. [PMID: 38961130 PMCID: PMC11222432 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06493-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The associative theory of creativity proposes that creative ideas result from connecting remotely related concepts in memory. Previous research found that higher creative individuals exhibit a more flexible organization of semantic memory, generate more uncommon word associations, and judge remote concepts as more related. In this study (N = 93), we used fMRI to investigate brain regions involved in judging the relatedness of concepts that vary in their semantic distance, and how such neural involvement relates to individual differences in creativity. Brain regions where activity increased with semantic relatedness mainly overlapped with default, control, salience, semantic control, and multiple demand networks. The default and semantic control networks exhibited increased involvement when evaluating more remote associations. Finally, higher creative people, who provided higher relatedness judgements on average, exhibited lower activity in those regions, possibly reflecting higher neural efficiency. We discuss these findings in the context of the neurocognitive processing underlying creativity. Overall, our findings indicate that judging remote concepts as related reflects a cognitive mechanism underlying creativity and shed light on the neural correlates of this mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caroline Herault
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Marcela Ovando-Tellez
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Izabela Lebuda
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Yoed N Kenett
- The Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel
| | - Benoit Beranger
- Sorbonne University, CENIR at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
| | | | - Emmanuelle Volle
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France.
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Ouerchefani R, Ouerchefani N, Ben Rejeb MR, Le Gall D. Exploring behavioural and cognitive dysexecutive syndrome in patients with focal prefrontal cortex damage. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. ADULT 2024; 31:443-463. [PMID: 35244518 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2022.2036152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
This study's objectives were to characterize the frequency and profile of behavioral and cognitive dysexecutive syndromes in patients with focal prefrontal cortex damage and how these syndromes overlap. We also examined the contribution of the prefrontal brain regions to these syndromes. Therefore, thirty patients with prefrontal cortex damage and thirty control subjects were compared on their performances using the GREFEX battery assessing the dysexecutive syndromes. The results showed that combined behavioral and cognitive dysexecutive syndrome was observed in 53.33%, while pure cognitive dysexecutive syndrome was observed in 20% and behavioral in 26.67%. Also, almost all behavioral and cognitive dysexecutive disorders discriminated frontal patients from controls. Moreover, correlations and regression analyses between task scores in both domains of dysexecutive syndromes showed that the spectrum of behavioral disorders was differentially associated with cognitive impairment of initiation, inhibition, generation, deduction, coordination, flexibility and the planning process. Furthermore, the patterns of cognitive and behavioral dysexecutive syndrome were both predictors of impairment in daily living activities and loss of autonomy. Finally, frontal regions contributing to different dysexecutive syndromes assessed by MRI voxel lesion symptom analysis indicate several overlapping regions centered on the ventromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for both domains of dysexecutive syndrome. This study concludes that damage to the frontal structures may lead to a diverse set of changes in both cognitive and behavioral domains which both contribute to loss of autonomy. The association of the ventromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal regions to both domains of dysexecutive syndrome suggests a higher integrative role of these regions in processing cognition and behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riadh Ouerchefani
- High Institute of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia
- Univ Angers, Université de Nantes, LPPL, SFR Confluences, Angers, France
| | | | - Mohamed Riadh Ben Rejeb
- Faculty of Human and Social Science of Tunisia, Department of Psychology, University of Tunis I, Tunis, Tunisia
| | - Didier Le Gall
- Univ Angers, Université de Nantes, LPPL, SFR Confluences, Angers, France
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Summaka M, Jebahi F, Al-Thalaya Z, Assaf S, Al-Kammouni Z, Al Zein H, Haidar R, Kresht J, Hassan FEZ, Matar W, Kawtharani H, Kassir H. Verbal fluency in Lebanese children: Preliminary normative data, sociodemographic determinants, and patterns of clustering and switching. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. CHILD 2024; 13:202-214. [PMID: 36441665 DOI: 10.1080/21622965.2022.2150551] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
This study assessed the quantitative and qualitative performance of Lebanese-speaking children on verbal fluency (VF) tasks and investigated the effects of sociodemographic characteristics. This study included 219 Lebanese children aged between 5 and 12 years and 11 months, whose native language is Lebanese-Arabic. Semantic and letter VF tasks were assessed using a range of categories and letters. Switching and clustering strategies were analyzed for 177 Lebanese children. The number of words produced presented a significant increase with age (p < .004) in semantic (SVF), while in letter (LVF), the differences were significant between extreme age groups. Females generated more words in the clothes (p = .003) and household items (p = .002) categories. The total number of switches and clusters showed a significantly increasing pattern with age (p < .05). The number of switches was higher for participants with high maternal (p < .001) and paternal (p < .013) educational levels. Regression analyses showed that the total number of switches and clusters, and the mean cluster size had a significant effect on SVF performance (p < .001). The current study generated preliminary norms for VF tasks for Lebanese-speaking children. The results of the current study have an important contribution to neuropsychology research and clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marwa Summaka
- Department of Speech Therapy, Health, Rehabilitation, Integration and Research Center (HRIR), Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Fatima Jebahi
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Zahra Al-Thalaya
- Department of Speech Therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Salma Assaf
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Zeinab Al-Kammouni
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Hanan Al Zein
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Rayan Haidar
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Jana Kresht
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | | | - Walaa Matar
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Hiba Kawtharani
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
| | - Hiba Kassir
- Department of Speech Therapy, Islamic University of Lebanon, Choueifat, Beirut, Lebanon
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Khoury MA, Churchill NW, Di Battista A, Graham SJ, Symons S, Troyer AK, Roberts A, Kumar S, Tan B, Arnott SR, Ramirez J, Tartaglia MC, Borrie M, Pollock B, Rajji TK, Pasternak SH, Frank A, Tang-Wai DF, Scott CJM, Haddad SMH, Nanayakkara N, Orange JB, Peltsch A, Fischer CE, Munoz DG, Schweizer TA. History of traumatic brain injury is associated with increased grey-matter loss in patients with mild cognitive impairment. J Neurol 2024; 271:4540-4550. [PMID: 38717612 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-024-12369-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To investigate whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with greater long-term grey-matter loss in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS 85 patients with MCI were identified, including 26 with a previous history of traumatic brain injury (MCI[TBI-]) and 59 without (MCI[TBI+]). Cortical thickness was evaluated by segmenting T1-weighted MRI scans acquired longitudinally over a 2-year period. Bayesian multilevel modelling was used to evaluate group differences in baseline cortical thickness and longitudinal change, as well as group differences in neuropsychological measures of executive function. RESULTS At baseline, the MCI[TBI+] group had less grey matter within right entorhinal, left medial orbitofrontal and inferior temporal cortex areas bilaterally. Longitudinally, the MCI[TBI+] group also exhibited greater longitudinal declines in left rostral middle frontal, the left caudal middle frontal and left lateral orbitofrontal areas sover the span of 2 years (median = 1-2%, 90%HDI [-0.01%: -0.001%], probability of direction (PD) = 90-99%). The MCI[TBI+] group also displayed greater longitudinal declines in Trail-Making-Test (TMT)-derived ratio (median: 0.737%, 90%HDI: [0.229%: 1.31%], PD = 98.8%) and differences scores (median: 20.6%, 90%HDI: [-5.17%: 43.2%], PD = 91.7%). CONCLUSIONS Our findings support the notion that patients with MCI and a history of TBI are at risk of accelerated neurodegeneration, displaying greatest evidence for cortical atrophy within the left middle frontal and lateral orbitofrontal frontal cortex. Importantly, these results suggest that long-term TBI-mediated atrophy is more pronounced in areas vulnerable to TBI-related mechanical injury, highlighting their potential relevance for diagnostic forms of intervention in TBI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc A Khoury
- Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
- Institute of Medical Science, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Nathan W Churchill
- Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Physics Department, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada
| | - Alex Di Battista
- Defence Research and Development Canada, Toronto Research Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Simon J Graham
- Physical Sciences Platform, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, M4N 3M5, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Sean Symons
- Department of Medical Imaging, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Angela K Troyer
- Neuropsychology and Cognitive Health Program, Baycrest Hospital, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Angela Roberts
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Computer Science, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging, London, ON, Canada
| | - Sanjeev Kumar
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Brian Tan
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Stephen R Arnott
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Joel Ramirez
- Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Maria C Tartaglia
- Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Michael Borrie
- Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
- . Joseph's Healthcare Centre, London, ON, Canada
| | - Bruce Pollock
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Tarek K Rajji
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Stephen H Pasternak
- . Joseph's Healthcare Centre, London, ON, Canada
- Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, London Health Sciences Centre, London, ON, Canada
| | - Andrew Frank
- Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, ON, Canada
- University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - David F Tang-Wai
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Christopher J M Scott
- Sunnybrook Research Institute, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
- L.C. Campbell Cognitive Neurology Research Unit, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada
| | | | | | - Joseph B Orange
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, ON, Canada
- University of Western, London, ON, Canada
| | | | - Corinne E Fischer
- Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute of Medical Science, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - David G Munoz
- Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute of Medical Science, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Tom A Schweizer
- Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute of Medical Science, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Science & Tech (iBEST), A Partnership Between St. Michael's Hospital and Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, M5V 1T8, Canada
- Division of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Altun MB, Öge-Daşdöğen Ö, Tütüncü M. Microstructural analysis of verbal fluency performance in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis based on the impact of disability level. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. ADULT 2024:1-11. [PMID: 38574394 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2024.2335534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/06/2024]
Abstract
Verbal fluency (VF) evaluates language and cognitive abilities. This study compared VF in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) and healthy controls (HC), examining variables including correct responses (CR), mean cluster size (MCS), switches (S), and fluency difference score (FDS). RRMS participants were subgrouped by Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), to explore the relationship between MS severity and VF. Twenty-four RRMS participants and matched HCs underwent Mini-Mental State Exam and VF Test. Statistical analysis compared VF between RRMS subgroups based on severity levels, and in HC. RRMS significantly impacted the CR, and S (CRSF p = 0.01, SSF p = 0.002; CRPF=0.002, SPF p = 0.002), while there was no significant difference in FDS between RRMS groups (p = 0.9). No significant relationship was found between EDSS scores, and VF subtests (CRSF p = 0.061, MCSSF p = 0.46, SSF p = 0.051, CRPF p = 0.521, MCSPF p = 0.966, SPF p = 0.599). In RRMS, our results demonstrate impairments in all VF parameters except the MCSSF+PF, and FDS. This study suggests that intact MCSSF+PF may reflect preserved verbal memory and word recall, while significant switching differences may indicate impaired cognitive flexibility. Similar FDS to those of HC suggest that no performance discrepancy in subtests in RRMS. Intact MCS might be a distinctive pattern in the early clinical stage of MS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melis Buse Altun
- Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Özlem Öge-Daşdöğen
- Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Melih Tütüncü
- Department of Neurology, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Istanbul, Turkey
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Yasa Kostas R, Kostas K, MacPherson SE, Wolters MK. Semantic verbal fluency in native speakers of Turkish: a systematic review of category use, scoring metrics and normative data in healthy individuals. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2024; 46:272-301. [PMID: 38904178 DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2024.2331827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 06/22/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) is a widely used measure of frontal executive function and access to semantic memory. SVF scoring metrics include the number of unique words generated, perseverations, intrusions, semantic cluster size and switching between clusters, and scores vary depending on the language the test is administered in. In this paper, we review the existing normative data for Turkish, the main metrics used for scoring SVF data in Turkish, and the most frequently used categories. METHOD We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed papers using Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, Web of Science, and two Turkish databases, TR-Dizin and Yok-Tez. Included papers contained data on the SVF performance of healthy adult native speakers of Turkish, and reported the categories used. Versions of the SVF that required participants to alternate categories were excluded. We extracted and tabulated demographics, descriptions of groups, metrics used, categories used, and sources of normative data. Studies were assessed for level of detail in reporting findings. RESULTS 1400 studies were retrieved. After deduplication, abstract, full text screening, and merging of theses with their published versions, 121 studies were included. 114 studies used the semantic category "animal", followed by first names (N = 14, 12%). All studies reported word count. More complex measures were rare (perseverations: N = 12, 10%, clustering and switching: N = 5, 4%). Four of seven normative studies reported only word count, two also measured perseverations, and one reported category violations and perseverations. Two normative studies were published in English. CONCLUSIONS There is a lack of normative Turkish SVF data with more complex metrics, such as clustering and switching, and a lack of normative data published in English. Given the size of the Turkish diaspora, normative SVF data should include monolingual and bilingual speakers. Limitations include a restriction to key English and Turkish databases.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kahraman Kostas
- Department of Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Sarah E MacPherson
- Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Maria K Wolters
- School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
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Collée E, van den Berg E, Visch-Brink E, Vincent A, Dirven C, Satoer D. Differential contribution of language and executive functioning to verbal fluency performance in glioma patients. J Neuropsychol 2024; 18 Suppl 1:19-40. [PMID: 38087828 DOI: 10.1111/jnp.12356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
Glioma patients often suffer from deficits in language and executive functioning. Performance in verbal fluency (generating words within one minute according to a semantic category-category fluency, or given letter-letter fluency) is typically impaired in this patient group. While both language and executive functioning play a role in verbal fluency, the relative contribution of both domains remains unclear. We aim to retrospectively investigate glioma patients' performance on verbal and nonverbal fluency and to explore the influence of language and executive functioning on verbal fluency. Sixty-nine adults with gliomas in eloquent areas underwent a neuropsychological test battery (verbal fluency, nonverbal fluency, language, and executive functioning tests) before surgery (T1) and a subgroup of 31 patients also at three (T2) and twelve months (T3) after surgery. Preoperatively, patients were impaired in all verbal fluency tasks and dissociations were found based on tumour location. In contrast, nonverbal fluency was intact. Different language and executive functioning tests predicted performance on category fluency animals and letter fluency, while no significant predictors for category fluency professions were found. The longitudinal results indicated that category fluency professions deteriorated after surgery (T1-T2, T1-T3) and that nonverbal fluency improved after surgery (T1-T3, T2-T3). Verbal fluency performance can provide information on different possible underlying deficits in language and executive functioning in glioma patients, depending on verbal fluency task selection. Efficient task (order) selection can be based on complexity. Category fluency professions can be selected to detect more permanent long-term deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Collée
- Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Esther van den Berg
- Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center Erasmus MC, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Evy Visch-Brink
- Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Arnaud Vincent
- Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Clemens Dirven
- Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Djaina Satoer
- Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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Tseng YT, Chang YL, Chiu YS. Assessment of Language Function in Older Mandarin-Speaking Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment using Multifaceted Language Tests. J Alzheimers Dis 2024; 97:1189-1209. [PMID: 38217600 PMCID: PMC10836557 DOI: 10.3233/jad-230871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), especially for those with multidomain cognitive deficits, should be clinically examined for determining risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. English-speakers with aMCI exhibit language impairments mostly at the lexical-semantic level. Given that the language processing of Mandarin Chinese is different from that of alphabetic languages, whether previous findings for English-speakers with aMCI can be generalized to Mandarin Chinese speakers with aMCI remains unclear. OBJECTIVE This study examined the multifaceted language functions of Mandarin Chinese speakers with aMCI and compared them with those without cognitive impairment by using a newly developed language test battery. METHODS Twenty-three individuals with aMCI and 29 individuals without cognitive impairment were recruited. The new language test battery comprises five language domains (oral production, auditory and reading comprehension, reading aloud, repetition, and writing). RESULTS Compared with the controls, the individuals with aMCI exhibited poorer performance in the oral production and auditory and reading comprehension domains, especially on tests involving effortful lexical and semantic processing. Moreover, the aMCI group made more semantic naming errors compared with their counterparts and tended to experience difficulty in processing items belonging to the categories of living objects. CONCLUSIONS The pattern identified in the present study is similar to that of English-speaking individuals with aMCI across multiple language domains. Incorporating language tests involving lexical and semantic processing into clinical practice is essential and can help identify early language dysfunction in Mandarin Chinese speakers with aMCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun-Ting Tseng
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
| | - Yu-Ling Chang
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
- Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yen-Shiang Chiu
- Department of Psychology, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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10
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Zemla JC, Gooding DC, Austerweil JL. Evidence for optimal semantic search throughout adulthood. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22528. [PMID: 38110643 PMCID: PMC10728182 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49858-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 12/20/2023] Open
Abstract
As people age, they learn and store new knowledge in their semantic memory. Despite learning a tremendous amount of information, people can still recall information relevant to the current situation with ease. To accomplish this, the mind must efficiently organize and search a vast store of information. It also must continue to retrieve information effectively despite changes in cognitive mechanisms due to healthy aging, including a general slowing in information processing and a decline in executive functioning. How effectively does the mind of an individual adjust its search to account for changes due to aging? We tested 746 people ages 25 through 69 on a semantic fluency task (free listing animals) and found that, on average, retrieval follows an optimal path through semantic memory. Participants tended to list a sequence of semantically related animals (e.g., lion, tiger, puma) before switching to a semantically unrelated animal (e.g., whale). We found that the timing of these transitions to semantically unrelated animals was remarkably consistent with an optimal strategy for maximizing the overall rate of retrieval (i.e., the number of animals listed per unit time). Age did not affect an individual's deviation from the optimal strategy given their general performance, suggesting that people adapt and continue to search memory optimally throughout their lives. We argue that this result is more likely due to compensating for a general slowing than a decline in executive functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey C Zemla
- Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
| | - Diane C Gooding
- Department of Psychology, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, SMPH, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
- Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology and Geriatrics, SMPH, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Joseph L Austerweil
- Department of Psychology, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
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11
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Lam BPW, Yoon J. The Effect of Language Dominance on Classic Semantic, Action, Emotional, and Phonemic Fluency in Unbalanced Bilinguals. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:4967-4983. [PMID: 37889261 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-23-00133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Verbal fluency evaluation in bilingual speakers should include dual-language assessment to obtain a comprehensive profile of word retrieval abilities. This study is the first to compare classic semantic, action, emotional, and phonemic fluency in terms of the magnitude of their performance gaps between the dominant and nondominant language in unbalanced bilingual speakers. We also examined the quantitative relationship between language dominance and verbal fluency performance. METHOD Twenty-six bilingual adults completed a comprehensive set of classic semantic ("animals," "vegetables"), action ("do"), emotional ("happy," "sad," "afraid"), and phonemic ("F," "A," "S") fluency tasks in their dominant language (English) and nondominant language (Spanish) in two sessions on separate days. Participants also completed subjective and objective measures of language proficiency. RESULTS All tasks yielded fewer correct responses in the nondominant language. The between-languages performance gap was the largest for "animals" and the smallest for emotional fluency. "Happy" yielded the most balanced performance among all semantic tasks and a positivity bias that was unaffected by language dominance. Finally, language dominance scores computed by a newly developed formula indicated relationships between self-rated proficiency and fluency performance. CONCLUSIONS This study provides preliminary, normative data of classic semantic, action, emotional, and phonemic fluency that could be used to gauge unbalanced bilingual speakers' performance. Significant impacts of language dominance on "animals" demand caution in using this widely used classic semantic category in evaluating bilingual speakers' performance. The data also underscore the robustness of positivity biases in emotional fluency and the validity of using subjective measures to supplement neuropsychological assessment of fluency performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boji P W Lam
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton
| | - Jiyoung Yoon
- Department of Spanish, University of North Texas, Denton
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12
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Mole J, Nelson A, Chan E, Cipolotti L, Nachev P. Characterizing phonemic fluency by transfer learning with deep language models. Brain Commun 2023; 5:fcad318. [PMID: 38046096 PMCID: PMC10691875 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcad318] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Though phonemic fluency tasks are traditionally indexed by the number of correct responses, the underlying disorder may shape the specific choice of words-both correct and erroneous. We report the first comprehensive qualitative analysis of incorrect and correct words generated on the phonemic ('S') fluency test, in a large sample of patients (n = 239) with focal, unilateral frontal or posterior lesions and healthy controls (n = 136). We conducted detailed qualitative analyses of the single words generated in the phonemic fluency task using categorical descriptions for different types of errors, low-frequency words and clustering/switching. We further analysed patients' and healthy controls' entire sequences of words by employing stochastic block modelling of Generative Pretrained Transformer 3-based deep language representations. We conducted predictive modelling to investigate whether deep language representations of word sequences improved the accuracy of detecting the presence of frontal lesions using the phonemic fluency test. Our qualitative analyses of the single words generated revealed several novel findings. For the different types of errors analysed, we found a non-lateralized frontal effect for profanities, left frontal effects for proper nouns and permutations and a left posterior effect for perseverations. For correct words, we found a left frontal effect for low-frequency words. Our novel large language model-based approach found five distinct communities whose varied word selection patterns reflected characteristic demographic and clinical features. Predictive modelling showed that a model based on Generative Pretrained Transformer 3-derived word sequence representations predicted the presence of frontal lesions with greater fidelity than models of native features. Our study reveals a characteristic pattern of phonemic fluency responses produced by patients with frontal lesions. These findings demonstrate the significant inferential and diagnostic value of characterizing qualitative features of phonemic fluency performance with large language models and stochastic block modelling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joe Mole
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Amy Nelson
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Edgar Chan
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Lisa Cipolotti
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Parashkev Nachev
- Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
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13
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Karousou A, Economacou D, Makris N. Clustering and Switching in Semantic Verbal Fluency: Their Development and Relationship with Word Productivity in Typically Developing Greek-Speaking Children and Adolescents. J Intell 2023; 11:209. [PMID: 37998708 PMCID: PMC10671952 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11110209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2023] [Revised: 10/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/28/2023] [Indexed: 11/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Performance in semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks, mainly measured by the number of words of a particular semantic category produced within a limited time, is a widely accepted measure of cognitive functioning used in the neuropsychological assessment of children and adults. Two strategic processes, Clustering and Switching (C&S) have been proposed to underlie fluency processes and affect performance in the task. However, few studies have reported on the development of those cognitive strategies and their relationship with word productivity in typically developing children. Even fewer studies have covered a broad developmental period from preschool to adolescence or measured the effect of contextual factors in this relationship. Based on a sample of 472 typically developing Greek-speaking children aged 4;0 to 16;11 years, we investigated the development of SVF performance and reported on the degree to which it is affected by C&S strategies, children's sex, and level of parental education. Results revealed a large effect of age on word productivity and on the use of C&S strategies. Two switching factors (number of clusters and number of switches) and two clustering factors (mean cluster size and a novel measure, maximum cluster size), appeared to be significantly associated with word productivity, with the largest effect being attributed to the two switching factors. C&S factors, together with children's age and parental education, predicted 91.7% of the variance in the SVF score. Children's sex was not found to have a significant effect on either word productivity or C&S strategies. Results are discussed for their theoretical implications on the strategic processes underlying word production in typically developing children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Karousou
- Department of Education Sciences in Early Childhood, Democritus University of Thrace, 681 00 Alexandroupolis, Greece
| | - Dimitra Economacou
- Department of Primary Education, Democritus University of Thrace, 671 32 Xanthi, Greece; (D.E.); (N.M.)
| | - Nikos Makris
- Department of Primary Education, Democritus University of Thrace, 671 32 Xanthi, Greece; (D.E.); (N.M.)
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Jebahi F, Abou Jaoude R, Daaboul H, El Achkar R, Jacobs MM. Preliminary normative data for 12 categories using semantic verbal fluency: The role of animacy. APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY. ADULT 2023; 30:680-685. [PMID: 34470556 DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2021.1971981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Verbal fluency tasks are a common part of neuropsychological batteries and are frequently used in clinical and research practices to support the diagnosis of neurological impairments. Semantic verbal fluency is most frequently examined using only the category of animals. Little is known about the differences other semantic categories may present on semantic verbal fluency performance. The purpose of this study was to establish preliminary categorical normative data across twelve categories comprising of different animate and inanimate categories using semantic verbal fluency in neurotypical Lebanese-speaking adults and to determine the impact of category affiliation (animacy) on semantic verbal fluency performance. The task was administered to seventy female and male adults aged between 19 and 79 years having different educational levels. Participants generated the greatest number of exemplars for the category of body parts. Participants then produced exemplars in the following decreasing order: animals, vegetables, fruits, clothes, kitchen utensils, naturals, electronics, furniture, means of transportation, tools, and accessories. The animate categories were associated with the greatest number of exemplars compared to the inanimate. Clustering strategy might have been reinforced by the shared properties of animates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatima Jebahi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
- Department of Speech Therapy, Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon
- Fulbright Association, Washington, USA
| | | | - Hadi Daaboul
- Department of Speech Therapy, Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Rhea El Achkar
- Department of Speech Therapy, Lebanese University, Fanar, Lebanon
| | - Molly M Jacobs
- Department of Health Services and Information Management, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
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15
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Fisher MN, Casenhiser DM, Paek EJ. Objective and Subjective Clustering Methods for Verb Fluency Responses From Individuals With Alzheimer's Dementia and Cognitively Healthy Older Adults. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2023; 32:2589-2601. [PMID: 37722380 PMCID: PMC10721246 DOI: 10.1044/2023_ajslp-22-00290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 03/13/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE The verb fluency task has been researched using a variety of analysis methods and shown its sensitivity to declines in executive functioning and lexical retrieval abilities in various neurogenic populations. Few studies to date, however, have analyzed clusters and switches in the task, and there is a lack of robust analysis methods that preclude subjectivity and potential rater bias. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability when using subjective clustering methods and to determine the feasibility of using an objective clustering method to determine verb fluency performance in individuals with Alzheimer's dementia (IwDs) and cognitively healthy older adults (CHOAs). METHOD Responses from a verb fluency task were obtained from IwDs and CHOAs. Group differences were examined using an objective clustering method for multiple variables regarding clustering and switching. We also calculated the intrarater, interrater, and intermethod reliability using intraclass coefficients. RESULTS Significant group differences were found when utilizing the objective clustering method in all variables except the average cluster size, with IwDs performing poorer than CHOAs. Intrarater reliability was excellent. Interrater reliability between two authors and intermethod reliability between the objective and subjective methods were variable ranging from moderate to good. CONCLUSIONS The results from using the objective clustering method in this study are consistent with the previous literature, making it a viable option for clustering analyses on the verb fluency task, which naturally minimizes subjectivity and rater bias. Alternatively, employing a thoroughly validated and reliable subjective approach can also mitigate potential rater bias and improve replicability across studies. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24061017.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madison N. Fisher
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Health Professions, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville
| | - Devin M. Casenhiser
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Health Professions, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville
| | - Eun Jin Paek
- Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Health Professions, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Knoxville
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Marko M, Michalko D, Dragašek J, Vančová Z, Jarčušková D, Riečanský I. Assessment of Automatic and Controlled Retrieval Using Verbal Fluency Tasks. Assessment 2023; 30:2198-2211. [PMID: 35979927 PMCID: PMC10478347 DOI: 10.1177/10731911221117512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Category and letter verbal fluency assessment is widely used in basic and clinical research. Yet, the nature of the processes measured by such means remains a matter of debate. To delineate automatic (free-associative) versus controlled (dissociative) retrieval processes involved in verbal fluency tasks, we carried out a psychometric study combining a novel lexical-semantic retrieval paradigm and structural equation modeling. We show that category fluency primarily engages a free-associative retrieval, whereas letter fluency exerts executive suppression of habitual semantic associates. Importantly, the models demonstrated that this dissociation is parametric rather than absolute, exhibiting a degree of unity as well as diversity among the retrieval measures. These findings and further exploratory analyses validate that category and letter fluency tasks reflect partially distinct forms of memory search and retrieval control, warranting different application in basic research and clinical assessment. Finally, we conclude that the novel associative-dissociative paradigm provides straightforward and useful behavioral measures for the assessment and differentiation of automatic versus controlled retrieval ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Marko
- Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Drahomír Michalko
- Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | | | | | | | - Igor Riečanský
- Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
- University of Vienna, Austria
- Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, Slovakia
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Zhou A, Britt C, Woods RL, Orchard SG, Murray AM, Shah RC, Rajan R, McNeil JJ, Chong TTJ, Storey E, Ryan J. Normative Data for Single-Letter Controlled Oral Word Association Test in Older White Australians and Americans, African-Americans, and Hispanic/Latinos. J Alzheimers Dis Rep 2023; 7:1033-1043. [PMID: 37849629 PMCID: PMC10578329 DOI: 10.3233/adr-230089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) is a commonly used measure of verbal fluency. While a normal decline in verbal fluency occurs in late adulthood, significant impairments may indicate brain injury or diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Normative data is essential to identify when test performance falls below expected levels based on age, gender, and education level. Objective This study aimed to establish normative performance data on single-letter COWAT for older community-dwelling adults. Methods Over 19,000 healthy men and women, without a diagnosis of dementia or a Modified Mini-Mental State Examination score below 77/100, were recruited for the ASPREE trial. Neuropsychological assessments, including the COWAT with letter F, were administered at study entry. Results Median participant age was 75 years (range 65-98), with 56.5% being women. The majority of participants had 9-11 years of education in Australia and over 12 years in the U.S. The COWAT performance varied across ethno-racial groups and normative data were thus presented separately for 16,335 white Australians, 1,084 white Americans, 896 African-Americans, and 316 Hispanic/Latinos. Women generally outperformed men in the COWAT, except for Hispanic/Latinos. Higher education levels consistently correlated with better COWAT performance across all groups, while the negative association with age was weaker. Conclusions This study provides comprehensive normative data for the COWAT stratified by ethno-racial groups in Australia and the U.S., considering age, gender, and education level. These norms can serve as reference standards for screening cognitive impairments in older adults in both clinical and research settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aoshuang Zhou
- Division of Epidemiology, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Carlene Britt
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Robyn L. Woods
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Suzanne G. Orchard
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Anne M. Murray
- Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Department of Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Raj C. Shah
- Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Ramesh Rajan
- Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - John J. McNeil
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Trevor T.-J. Chong
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Elsdon Storey
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Joanne Ryan
- School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Rofes A, Beran M, Jonkers R, Geerlings MI, Vonk JMJ. What Drives Task Performance in Animal Fluency in Individuals Without Dementia? The SMART-MR Study. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:3473-3485. [PMID: 37494924 PMCID: PMC10558141 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 07/28/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE In this study, we aim to understand whether and how performance in animal fluency (i.e., total correct word count) relates to linguistic levels and/or executive functions by looking at sequence information and item-level metrics (i.e., clusters, switches, and word properties). METHOD Seven hundred thirty-one Dutch-speaking individuals without dementia from the Second Manifestations of ARTerial disease-Magnetic Resonance study responded to an animal fluency task (120 s). We obtained cluster size and number of switches for the task, and eight different word properties for each correct word produced. We detected variables that determine total word count with random forests, and used conditional inference trees to assess points along the scales of such variables, at which total word count changes significantly. RESULTS Number of switches, average cluster size, lexical decision response times, word frequency, and concreteness determined total correct word count in animal fluency. People who produced more correct words produced more switches and bigger clusters. People who produced fewer words produced fewer switches and more frequent words. CONCLUSIONS Concurrent with existing literature, individuals without dementia rely on language and executive functioning to produce words in animal fluency. The novelty of our work is that such results were shown based on a data-driven approach using sequence information and item-level metrics. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23713269.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrià Rofes
- Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Magdalena Beran
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, the Netherlands
| | - Roel Jonkers
- Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Mirjam I. Geerlings
- Department of General Practice, Amsterdam UMC, Location University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Aging & Later life, and Personalized Medicine, Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
- Neurodegeneration, and Mood, Anxiety, Psychosis, Stress, and Sleep, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
| | - Jet M. J. Vonk
- Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, the Netherlands
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco
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Hiiragi H, Minami T, Terauchi Y. Predicting three categories of Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 8-items score-based glycemic targets using the number of animal names recalled. J Diabetes Investig 2023; 14:1121-1127. [PMID: 37312285 PMCID: PMC10445189 DOI: 10.1111/jdi.14040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Revised: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/29/2023] [Indexed: 06/15/2023] Open
Abstract
AIMS/INTRODUCTION The Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 8-items (DASC-8) assesses memory, orientation, instrumental activities of daily living and basic activities of daily living. Category I (DASC-8 score ≤10), category II (11 ≤ DASC-8 score ≤16) and category III (DASC-8 score ≥17) have been defined. Based on these categories, the glycemic targets in diabetes patients aged ≥65 years have been proposed by the Japan Diabetes Society and the Japan Geriatrics Society Joint Committee. DASC-8 is difficult to apply to patients without family members or supportive persons. We propose a verbal fluency test as the screening tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS We enrolled 69 inpatients aged ≥65 years with type 2 diabetes, who were administered the DASC-8 and VF tests, which included recalling animal names and common nouns starting with a specified letter in 1 min. The relationship between DASC-8 and verbal fluency test scores was investigated. RESULTS Animal fluency correlated with DASC-8 scores after adjustment for patient characteristics. Animal scores correlated with orientation, instrumental activities of daily living and basic activities of daily living scores of DASC-8, and tended to show a relationship with DASC-8 memory scores. An animal score ≥8 predicted category I with a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 57%. An animal score ≤6 predicted category III with a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 67%. CONCLUSIONS Animal scores would be useful in predicting the categories of DASC-8. Animal fluency could be a screening tool of DASC-8 when a patient's family member or supportive person is absent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiroko Hiiragi
- Division of Diabetes and EndocrinologySaiseikai Yokohama Nanbu HospitalYokohamaJapan
- Department of Endocrinology and MetabolismGraduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City UniversityYokohamaJapan
| | - Taichi Minami
- Division of Diabetes and EndocrinologySaiseikai Yokohama Nanbu HospitalYokohamaJapan
- Department of Endocrinology and MetabolismGraduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City UniversityYokohamaJapan
| | - Yasuo Terauchi
- Department of Endocrinology and MetabolismGraduate School of Medicine, Yokohama City UniversityYokohamaJapan
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Gordon JK, Chen H. How well does the discrepancy between semantic and letter verbal fluency performance distinguish Alzheimer's dementia from typical aging? NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND COGNITION. SECTION B, AGING, NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2023; 30:729-758. [PMID: 35612362 DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2079602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
In Alzheimer's dementia (AD), greater declines in semantic fluency (SF) relative to letter fluency (LF) have been assumed to reflect semantic disintegration. However, the same pattern is observed in typical aging and neurodegenerative disorders besides AD. We examined this assumption by comparing different aspects of SF and LF performance in older adults with and without dementia, and identifying which verbal fluency measures most clearly distinguish AD from typical aging. Verbal fluency data were compared from 109 individuals with AD and 66 typically aging adults. Correct items, clusters, and errors were analyzed using both raw counts and proportions. Regression analyses examined Task-by-Group interactions and the impact of demographic variables on verbal fluency measures. ROC analyses examined the sensitivity and specificity of the different outcome measures. In regressions, interactions were found for raw but not proportional data, indicating that different group patterns were driven largely by the number of correct items produced. Similarly, in ROC analyses, raw SF totals showed stronger discriminability between groups than either raw discrepancy scores (SF-LF) or discrepancy ratios (SF/LF). Age and cognitive status (MMSE) were the strongest individual predictors of performance. Findings suggest that AD entails quantitative declines in verbal fluency, but qualitatively similar patterns of performance relative to typically aging adults. Thus, SF declines in AD seem to be at least partially attributable to an exaggeration of the underlying mechanisms common to typical aging, and do not necessarily implicate semantic disintegration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean K Gordon
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Haoxuan Chen
- Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
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Yu H, Gao J, Chang RSK, Mak W, Thach TQ, Cheung RTF. Inhibitory dysfunction may cause prospective memory impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients: an event-related potential study. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1006744. [PMID: 37565055 PMCID: PMC10410078 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1006744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember future intentions, and PM function is closely related to independence in daily life, particularly in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). As PM involves various cognitive components of attention, working memory, inhibition and other executive functions, this study investigated how TLE may affect PM components and the underlying neural mechanisms. Methods Sixty-four subjects were recruited, including 20 refractory TLE patients, 18 well-controlled TLE patients and 26 age-matched healthy controls. A set of neuropsychological tests was administered to assess specific brain functions. An event-related potential (ERP) task was used to further explore how PM and its components would be differentially affected in the two TLE types. Results Our findings revealed that: (1) refractory TLE patients scored lower than the healthy controls in the digit span, Verbal Fluency Test and Symbol Digit Modalities Test; (2) refractory TLE patients exhibited impaired PM performance and reduced prospective positivity amplitudes over the frontal, central and parietal regions in ERP experiments when compared to the healthy controls; and (3) decreased P3 amplitudes in the nogo trials were observed over the frontal-central sites in refractory but not in well-controlled TLE patients. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first ERP study on PM that has specifically identified PM impairment in refractory but not in well-controlled TLE patients. Our finding of double dissociation in PM components suggests that inhibition dysfunction may be the main reason for PM deficit in refractory TLE patients. The present results have clinical implications for neuropsychological rehabilitation in TLE patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hemei Yu
- Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Junling Gao
- Centre of Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Richard Shek-Kwan Chang
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Windsor Mak
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Thuan-Quoc Thach
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Raymond Tak Fai Cheung
- Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Zhang H, Diaz MT. Resting State Network Segregation Modulates Age-Related Differences in Language Production. NEUROBIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2023; 4:382-403. [PMID: 37546689 PMCID: PMC10403275 DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/08/2023]
Abstract
Older adults typically exhibit decline in language production. However, how the brain supports or fails to support these processes is unclear. Moreover, there are competing hypotheses about the nature of age-related neural changes and whether age-related increases in neural activity reflect compensation or a decline in neural efficiency. In the current study, we investigated the neural bases of language production focusing on resting state functional connectivity. We hypothesized that language production performance, functional connectivity, and their relationship would differ as a function of age. Consistent with prior work, older age was associated with worse language production performance. Functional connectivity analyses showed that network segregation within the left hemisphere language network was maintained across adulthood. However, increased age was associated with lower whole brain network segregation. Moreover, network segregation was related to language production ability. In both network analyses, there were significant interactions with age-higher network segregation was associated with better language production abilities for younger and middle-aged adults, but not for older adults. Interestingly, there was a stronger relationship between language production and the whole brain network segregation than between production and the language network. These results highlight the utility of network segregation measures as an index of brain function, with higher network segregation associated with better language production ability. Moreover, these results are consistent with stability in the left hemisphere language network across adulthood and suggest that dedifferentiation among brain networks, outside of the language network, is a hallmark of aging and may contribute to age-related language production difficulties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haoyun Zhang
- Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Michele T. Diaz
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
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Wright LM, De Marco M, Venneri A. Current Understanding of Verbal Fluency in Alzheimer's Disease: Evidence to Date. Psychol Res Behav Manag 2023; 16:1691-1705. [PMID: 37179686 PMCID: PMC10167999 DOI: 10.2147/prbm.s284645] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Since their development, verbal fluency tests (VFTs) have been used extensively throughout research and in clinical settings to assess a variety of cognitive functions in diverse populations. In Alzheimer's disease (AD), these tasks have proven particularly valuable in identifying the earliest forms of cognitive decline in semantic processing and have been shown to relate specifically to brain regions associated with the initial stages of pathological change. In recent years, researchers have developed more nuanced techniques to evaluate verbal fluency performance, extracting a wide range of cognitive metrics from these simple neuropsychological tests. Such novel techniques allow for a more detailed exploration of the cognitive processes underlying successful task performance beyond the raw test score. The versatility of VFTs and the richness of data they may provide, in light of their low cost and speed of administration, therefore, highlight their potential value both in future research as outcome measures for clinical trials and in a clinical setting as a screening measure for early detection of neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura M Wright
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
| | - Matteo De Marco
- Department of Life Sciences, Brunel University London, London, UK
| | - Annalena Venneri
- Department of Life Sciences, Brunel University London, London, UK
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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Godefroy O, Aarabi A, Dorchies F, Barbay M, Andriuta D, Diouf M, Thiebaut de Schotten M, Kassir R, Tasseel-Ponche S, Roussel M. Functional architecture of executive processes: Evidence from verbal fluency and lesion mapping in stroke patients. Cortex 2023; 164:129-143. [PMID: 37207410 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.03.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2022] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
The functional organization and related anatomy of executive functions are still largely unknown and were examined in the present study using a verbal fluency task. The objective of this study was to determine the cognitive architecture of a fluency task and related voxelwise anatomy in the GRECogVASC cohort and fMRI based meta-analytical data. First, we proposed a model of verbal fluency in which two control processes, lexico-semantic strategic search process and attention process, interact with semantic and lexico-phonological output processes. This model was assessed by testing 404 patients and 775 controls for semantic and letter fluency, naming, and processing speed (Trail Making test part A). Regression (R2 = .276 and .3, P = .0001, both) and structural equation modeling (CFI: .88, RMSEA: .2, SRMR: .1) analyses supported this model. Second, voxelwise lesion-symptom mapping and disconnectome analyses demonstrated fluency to be associated with left lesions of the pars opercularis, lenticular nucleus, insula, temporopolar region, and a large number of tracts. In addition, a single dissociation showed specific association of letter fluency with the pars triangularis of F3. Disconnectome mapping showed the additional role of disconnection of left frontal gyri and thalamus. By contrast, these analyses did not identify voxels specifically associated with lexico-phonological search processes. Third, meta-analytic fMRI data (based on 72 studies) strikingly matched all structures identified by the lesion approach. These results support our modeling of the functional architecture of verbal fluency based on two control processes (strategic search and attention) operating on semantic and lexico-phonologic output processes. Multivariate analysis supports the prominent role of the temporopolar area (BA 38) in semantic fluency and the F3 triangularis area (BA 45) in letter fluency. Finally, the lack of voxels specifically dedicated to strategic search processes could be due to a distributed organization of executive functions warranting further studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Godefroy
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Departments of Neurology, Amiens University Hospital, France.
| | - Ardalan Aarabi
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
| | - Flore Dorchies
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France
| | - Mélanie Barbay
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Departments of Neurology, Amiens University Hospital, France
| | - Daniela Andriuta
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Departments of Neurology, Amiens University Hospital, France
| | - Momar Diouf
- Departments of Biostatistics, Amiens University Hospital, France
| | - Michel Thiebaut de Schotten
- Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives-UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory, Sorbonne Universities, Paris, France
| | - Rania Kassir
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Laboratoire de Recherche en Neurosciences (LAREN), Université Saint-Joseph, Beyrouth, Lebanon
| | - Sophie Tasseel-Ponche
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Amiens University Hospital, France
| | - Martine Roussel
- Laboratory of Functional Neurosciences (UR UPJV 4559), Jules Verne University of Picardie, Amiens, France; Departments of Neurology, Amiens University Hospital, France
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Investigating the network structure of domain-specific knowledge using the semantic fluency task. Mem Cognit 2023; 51:623-646. [PMID: 35608782 PMCID: PMC9128323 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01314-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive scientists have a long-standing interest in quantifying the structure of semantic memory. Here, we investigate whether a commonly used paradigm to study the structure of semantic memory, the semantic fluency task, as well as computational methods from network science could be leveraged to explore the underlying knowledge structures of academic disciplines such as psychology or biology. To compare the knowledge representations of individuals with relatively different levels of expertise in academic subjects, undergraduate students (i.e., experts) and preuniversity high school students (i.e., novices) completed a semantic fluency task with cue words corresponding to general semantic categories (i.e., animals, fruits) and specific academic domains (e.g., psychology, biology). Network analyses of their fluency networks found that both domain-general and domain-specific semantic networks of undergraduates were more efficiently connected and less modular than the semantic networks of high school students. Our results provide an initial proof-of-concept that the semantic fluency task could be used by educators and cognitive scientists to study the representation of more specific domains of knowledge, potentially providing new ways of quantifying the nature of expert cognitive representations.
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Michalko D, Marko M, Riečanský I. Response modularity moderates how executive control aids fluent semantic memory retrieval. Memory 2023:1-8. [PMID: 36945859 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2191902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
ABSTRACTEmerging work in semantic cognition has begun to elucidate the interaction between the structure of semantic memory and processes mediating goal-directed memory retrieval. Despite having essential implications for basic and applied research, these objectives remain neglected in both the assessment and interpretation of semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks. To test the association between semantic structure and the controlled processes underlying verbal fluency, we assessed how the degree of partitioning (modularity) of SVF responses into semantic clusters moderates the relationship of retrieval fluency with working memory and interference control capacities. We found that working memory capacity predicted retrieval fluency in individuals whose SVF responses were arranged in fine-grained semantic clusters (high modularity), whereas interference control was more predictive of retrieval fluency for individuals who delivered responses of low modularity. Our data support the presumed role of working memory and interference control in SVF and provide novel evidence that relative demands on these capacities are predicted by the organisation of semantic knowledge.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drahomír Michalko
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Martin Marko
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Department of Applied Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Igor Riečanský
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia
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Michalko D, Marko M, Riečanský I. Executive functioning moderates the decline of retrieval fluency in time. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2023; 87:397-409. [PMID: 35467164 PMCID: PMC11189984 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-022-01680-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Prevailing theoretical accounts consider that automatic and controlled processes are uniformly engaged in memory retrieval across performance of the semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task. We tested this proposal against the alternative, namely that a rapid automatic retrieval, exploiting stable associative structure in the early stages of the performance, is followed by a slower, more executively demanding, retrieval in later stages. Eighty-five healthy adults completed low- and high-demand SVF tasks that were assessed for retrieval rate, response typicality, and inter-response similarity across the performance. Additional measures of executive functioning were collected to estimate individual differences in executive control. We found that decrease in fluency in time was associated with lower typicality and weaker semantic similarity of the responses. Critically, the time-dependent retrieval slowing was steeper in individuals with less efficient interference control, particularly in high-demand SVF tasks. Steeper retrieval slowing was also associated with poorer working-memory capacity. Our findings show that the relative contribution of automatic and controlled processes to semantic retrieval changes with associative sparsity over time and across task demands, and provide implications for the use of SVF tasks in clinical assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drahomír Michalko
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sienkiewiczova 1, 813 71, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Martin Marko
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sienkiewiczova 1, 813 71, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Department of Applied Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská Dolina F1, 842 48, Bratislava, Slovakia
| | - Igor Riečanský
- Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Centre of Experimental Medicine, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sienkiewiczova 1, 813 71, Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, Limbová 12, 833 03, Bratislava, Slovakia.
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"It's on the tip of my tongue!" exploring confrontation naming difficulties in patients with multiple sclerosis. Mult Scler Relat Disord 2023; 71:104579. [PMID: 36805174 DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.104579] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Revised: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Naming difficulty is commonly reported by patients with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). Though many cognitive batteries recommended for pwMS include fluency tasks, they do not include naming tasks. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of naming impairment in pwMS by using a measure of confrontation naming and to identify correlates with neuroimaging. METHODS One-hundred-eighty-five pwMS (Mage = 48.75 ± 11.23) completed neuropsychological testing and fifty had brain MRI scans within one year of neuropsychological testing. Controlling for demographic variables, partial correlations and hierarchical regressions with language tests as the outcome variables and neuroimaging variables as predictors were performed. RESULTS Performance on language tasks ranged within low average to average, with impairment most frequently found on a measure of confrontation naming (Boston Naming Test [BNT];27.6%), followed by a measure of phonemic fluency (Controlled Oral Word Association Test [COWAT]; 24.3%) and semantic fluency (animals [AF]; 18.3%). In the subset of patients with neuroimaging, thalamic volume had the strongest relationship with language variables, followed by white matter volume and T2 lesion volume. Language variables had no association with fractional gray matter volume. Of the language measures, BNT demonstrated the strongest relationship with MRI variables, followed by AF. There were no significant associations between neuroimaging variables and COWAT. Regression results revealed that fractional thalamic volume significantly contributed to BNT scores after adjusting for demographics, while T2 lesion volume predicted AF and no neuroimaging variables emerged as predictors for COWAT after controlling for demographics. CONCLUSIONS Objective naming impairment is common in pwMS and are more strongly associated with neuroimaging of MS brain pathology than verbal fluency tasks that are commonly used in cognitive batteries for pwMS. Continued research on language (especially naming) deficits and neuroimaging correlates (particularly thalamic involvement) in pwMS is needed.
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Lam BPW, Yoon J. Dual-Language Testing of Emotional Verbal Fluency: A Closer Look at "Joy," "Sadness," "Fear," "Anger," and "Disgust". ARCHIVES OF CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGY : THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGISTS 2023; 38:91-105. [PMID: 35909221 DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acac054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Assessing neuropsychological functions of dual-language speakers with semantic verbal fluency should consider the impact of language proficiency. Much evidence for the proficiency effect is found in tasks targeting neutral words. The proficiency effect on emotional verbal fluency (Emo-VF) that targets emotional word retrieval, however, is far from conclusive. This study aimed to clarify the proficiency effect on Emo-VF, specifically the extent to which language proficiency impacted positive and negative word retrieval comparably. In addition, the study examined the extent to which dual-languages speakers produced duplicated items and unique, non-duplicated items in each of two languages tested. METHOD Thirty-two adult participants completed Emo-VF tasks that targeted a comprehensive set of basic emotions ("joy," "sadness," "fear," "anger," "disgust") in English and Spanish in two sessions separated by at least 72 h. All participants exhibited greater proficiency in English than in Spanish according to subjective and objective measures of language proficiency. RESULTS Verbal productivity was comparably lowered for all emotions in the less proficient language. Differences among categories were consistent between languages, with "joy" eliciting more words than other emotions, and "fear" yielding the highest productivity among negative emotions. Finally, dual-language speakers produced a significant number of unique items in different languages, especially for "fear." CONCLUSION Language proficiency exerts a general effect on positive and negative word retrieval. The study extends previous work by revealing differences between "fear" and other negative categories in addition to replicating positivity biases in unbalanced dual-language speakers. Dual-language testing is valuable in capturing the richness of emotional word repertoire associated with different languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boji P W Lam
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, TX USA
| | - Jiyoung Yoon
- Department of Spanish, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA
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Differential effects of executive load on automatic versus controlled semantic memory retrieval. Mem Cognit 2023:10.3758/s13421-022-01388-x. [PMID: 36650348 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-022-01388-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Growing evidence indicates that a domain-general executive control supports semantic memory retrieval, yet the nature of this interaction remains elusive. To shed light on such control mechanisms, we conducted two dual-task experiments loading distinct executive capacities (working memory maintenance, monitoring, and switching), while participants carried out automatic (free-associative) and controlled (dissociative) word retrieval tasks. We found that these forms of executive load interfered with retrieval fluency in both tasks, but these negative effects were more pronounced for the dissociative performance. Together, these findings indicate that the domain-general executive control supports accessing contextually relevant knowledge as well as the inhibition of automatically activated but task-inappropriate retrieval candidates, putatively via an adaptive gating of semantic activation and interference control. Moreover, the processing costs related to retrieval inhibition and switching were negatively correlated, suggesting a trade-off between the ability to constrain semantic activation (i.e., inhibition) and the ability to initiate flexible transitions between semantic sets (i.e., switching), which may thus represent two complementary control functions governing semantic memory retrieval.
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Park J, Yoo YR, Lim Y, Sung JE. Phonological and semantic strategies in a letter fluency task for people with Alzheimer's disease. Front Psychol 2022; 13:1053272. [PMID: 36591070 PMCID: PMC9796995 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1053272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Objectives This study investigated whether employing a phonological or semantic strategy elicited a better performance on a letter fluency task for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods Sixty participants with probable AD were extracted from the DementiaBank database. After applying exclusion criteria, 47 participants were included in the final analysis. We used phonological and semantic strategies to analyze participants' responses to the letter fluency task. The phonological strategy analysis was based on the number of switches and the mean cluster size, and the semantic strategy analysis was based on semantic relatedness, which quantified word-similarity change by adapting the concept of persistence length from analyses of DNA and protein structures. We employed Pearson correlation coefficients to determine whether any strategy indexes were significantly related to the number of correct responses and used stepwise multiple regression analyses to determine the best predictor. Results Participants who relied on phonological strategy performed better on the letter fluency task. The number of correct responses was significantly positively correlated with phonological strategy but significantly negatively correlated with semantic strategy. The number of switches, mean cluster size, and semantic relatedness were all significant predictors, explaining 68.1% of the variance. Conclusion Our results suggested that individuals with AD who engaged in phonological strategy performed better on the letter fluency task than those who relied on semantic strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jimin Park
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yae Rin Yoo
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Yoonseob Lim
- The Center for Intelligent and Interactive Robotics, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea,Department of HY-KIST Bio-Convergence, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jee Eun Sung
- Department of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea,*Correspondence: Jee Eun Sung,
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Chami S, Charalambous C, Knijnik SR, Docking K. Language and executive function skills as predictors of semantic fluency performance in pre-school children. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 24:626-635. [PMID: 34866507 DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2021.2008005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose: To explore how language and executive function skills of pre-school-aged children contribute to semantic fluency (a form of verbal fluency) performance. This study investigated effect of age and contribution of vocabulary and executive function on qualitative aspects of the semantic fluency task.Method: Forty typically developing Australian-English-speaking pre-school children, aged 4;0-5;11 (mean age = 55.5 months, SD = 5.21) participated. Eight assessment tasks were presented in random order examining semantic fluency, vocabulary knowledge and executive function. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses determined the extent to which measures of executive function and vocabulary accounted for fluency (number of words correctly produced) and qualitative aspects of the semantic fluency task (number of clusters, number of clustered words, number of switches).Result: While executive function and vocabulary were positively correlated with fluency and all qualitative measures of semantic fluency performance, they were not significant predictors of any aspect of task performance. Age and vocabulary were the only significant predictors of fluency, number of words clustered, and number of switches. Performance on these tasks was strongly related to vocabulary and automated retrieval processes.Conclusion: Pre-school children do not predominantly rely on executive function during semantic fluency. The influence that vocabulary has on semantic fluency task performance outweighs that accounted for by age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Chami
- Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Carla Charalambous
- Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
- Macarthur Children's Developmental Clinic, StarKids Australia, Sydney, Australia
| | - Stefani R Knijnik
- Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
| | - Kimberley Docking
- Speech Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
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Faber D, Grosse GM, Klietz M, Petri S, Schwenkenbecher P, Sühs KW, Kopp B. Towards the Validation of Executive Functioning Assessments: A Clinical Study. J Clin Med 2022; 11:jcm11237138. [PMID: 36498712 PMCID: PMC9735570 DOI: 10.3390/jcm11237138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuropsychological assessment needs a more profound grounding in psychometric theory. Specifically, psychometrically reliable and valid tools are required, both in patient care and in scientific research. The present study examined convergent and discriminant validity of some of the most popular indicators of executive functioning (EF). A sample of 96 neurological inpatients (aged 18-68 years) completed a battery of standardized cognitive tests (Raven's matrices, vocabulary test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, verbal fluency test, figural fluency test). Convergent validity of indicators of intelligence (Raven's matrices, vocabulary test) and of indicators of EF (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, verbal fluency test, figural fluency) were calculated. Discriminant validity of indicators of EF against indicators of intelligence was also calculated. Convergent validity of indicators of intelligence (Raven's matrices, vocabulary test) was good (rxtyt = 0.727; R2 = 0.53). Convergent validity of fluency indicators of EF against executive cognition as indicated by performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test was poor (0.087 ≤ rxtyt ≤ 0.304; 0.008 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.092). Discriminant validity of indicators of EF against indicators of intelligence was good (0.106 ≤ rxtyt ≤ 0.548; 0.011 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.300). Our conclusions from these data are clear-cut: apparently dissimilar indicators of intelligence converge on general intellectual ability. Apparently dissimilar indicators of EF (mental fluency, executive cognition) do not converge on general executive ability. Executive abilities, although non-unitary, can be reasonably well distinguished from intellectual ability. The present data contribute to the hitherto meager evidence base regarding the validity of popular indicators of EF.
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Arán Filippetti V, Krumm G, López MB. Clustering and Switching During Verbal Fluency in Typical and Atypical Development: A Systematic Review in Children and Adolescents. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03787-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Bushnell J, Svaldi D, Ayers MR, Gao S, Unverzagt F, Gaizo JD, Wadley VG, Kennedy R, Goñi J, Clark DG. A comparison of techniques for deriving clustering and switching scores from verbal fluency word lists. Front Psychol 2022; 13:743557. [PMID: 36186334 PMCID: PMC9518694 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.743557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2021] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective To compare techniques for computing clustering and switching scores in terms of agreement, correlation, and empirical value as predictors of incident cognitive impairment (ICI). Methods We transcribed animal and letter F fluency recordings on 640 cases of ICI and matched controls from a national epidemiological study, amending each transcription with word timings. We then calculated clustering and switching scores, as well as scores indexing speed of responses, using techniques described in the literature. We evaluated agreement among the techniques with Cohen’s κ and calculated correlations among the scores. After fitting a base model with raw scores, repetitions, and intrusions, we fit a series of Bayesian logistic regression models adding either clustering and switching scores or speed scores, comparing the models in terms of several metrics. We partitioned the ICI cases into acute and progressive cases and repeated the regression analysis for each group. Results For animal fluency, we found that models with speed scores derived using the slope difference algorithm achieved the best values of the Watanabe–Akaike Information Criterion (WAIC), but with good net reclassification improvement (NRI) only for the progressive group (8.2%). For letter fluency, different models excelled for prediction of acute and progressive cases. For acute cases, NRI was best for speed scores derived from a network model (3.4%), while for progressive cases, the best model used clustering and switching scores derived from the same network model (5.1%). Combining variables from the best animal and letter F models led to marginal improvements in model fit and NRI only for the all-cases and acute-cases analyses. Conclusion Speed scores improve a base model for predicting progressive cognitive impairment from animal fluency. Letter fluency scores may provide complementary information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Bushnell
- Department of Neurology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Diana Svaldi
- Department of Neurology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Matthew R. Ayers
- Department of Psychiatry, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Sujuan Gao
- Department of Biostatistics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - Frederick Unverzagt
- Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
| | - John Del Gaizo
- Biomedical Informatics Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States
| | - Virginia G. Wadley
- Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Richard Kennedy
- Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
| | - Joaquín Goñi
- Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West-Lafayette, IN, United States
| | - David Glenn Clark
- Department of Neurology, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States
- *Correspondence: David Glenn Clark,
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Lam BPW, Marquardt TP. Factors Predicting Mental Effort Associated With Verbal Fluency: Cue Types, Switching, and Fear of Negative Evaluation. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:3491-3501. [PMID: 36041465 DOI: 10.1044/2022_jslhr-21-00563] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Verbal fluency, a task frequently employed in neuropsychological assessment, provides important word productivity data but little information about subjective effort associated with demand monitoring and resource allocation. In two experiments, this study investigated the effects of task variables (semantic vs. phonemic cues; alternating vs. nonalternating conditions) and personal factors (fear of negative evaluation and trait anxiety) on subjective effort for a wide variety of verbal fluency tasks in neurotypical individuals. METHOD Twenty-one adults completed eight verbal fluency tasks in Experiment 1. The tasks were selected to examine effort reported for verbal fluency that differed in (a) cue types and (b) the disruptions of clustering strategies. In Experiment 2, a separate group of 50 adults completed two verbal fluency tasks twice in separate sessions. Participants also completed social-emotional measures including fear of negative evaluation and trait anxiety. Working memory was assessed as a control variable. RESULTS Experiment 1 showed greater effort for completing semantic than phonemic cue tasks and greater effort for alternating than nonalternating conditions. Alternating semantic verbal fluency yielded the greatest effort among all tasks. Differences in effort could not be accounted for by performance alone. Experiment 2 showed that greater fear toward negative evaluation was associated with greater effort. The relationship between fear and effort was not related to trait anxiety or moderated by performance levels or repeated testing. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge about factors that impact subjective effort in neurotypical individuals is fundamental to accurate interpretation of effort reported by clinical populations. This study demonstrated the multifaceted nature of subjective effort that could not be accounted for by performance alone. In addition to task variables, effort assessment needs to consider the impact of social-emotional factors such as fear toward negative evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Boji P W Lam
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton
| | - Thomas P Marquardt
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
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Segregated circuits for phonemic and semantic fluency: A novel patient-tailored disconnection study. Neuroimage Clin 2022; 36:103149. [PMID: 35970113 PMCID: PMC9400120 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2022] [Revised: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 08/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Phonemic and semantic fluency are neuropsychological tests widely used to assess patients' language and executive abilities and are highly sensitive tests in detecting language deficits in glioma patients. However, the networks that are involved in these tasks could be distinct and suggesting either a frontal (phonemic) or temporal (semantic) involvement. 42 right-handed patients (26 male, mean age = 52.5 years, SD=±13.3) were included in this retrospective study. Patients underwent awake (54.8%) or asleep (45.2%) surgery for low-grade (16.7%) or high-grade-glioma (83.3%) in the frontal (64.3%) or temporal lobe (35.7%) of the left (50%) or right (50%) hemisphere. Pre-operative tractography was reconstructed for each patient, with segmentation of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), arcuate fasciculus (AF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), third branch of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF-III), frontal aslant tract (FAT), and cortico-spinal tract (CST). Post-operative percentage of damage and disconnection of each tract, based on the patients' surgical cavities, were correlated with verbal fluencies scores at one week and one month after surgery. Analyses of differences between fluency scores at these timepoints (before surgery, one week and one month after surgery) were performed; lesion-symptom mapping was used to identify the correlation between cortical areas and post-operative scores. Immediately after surgery, a transient impairment of verbal fluency was observed, that improved within a month. Left hemisphere lesions were related to a worse verbal fluency performance, being a damage to the left superior frontal or temporal gyri associated with phonemic or semantic fluency deficit, respectively. At a subcortical level, disconnection analyses revealed that fluency scores were associated to the involvement of the left FAT and the left frontal part of the IFOF for phonemic fluency, and the association was still present one month after surgery. For semantic fluency, the correlation between post-surgery performance emerged for the left AF, UF, ILF and the temporal part of the IFOF, but disappeared at the follow-up. This approach based on the patients' pre-operative tractography, allowed to trace for the first time a dissociation between white matter pathways integrity and verbal fluency after surgery for glioma resection. Our results confirm the involvement of a frontal anterior pathway for phonemic fluency and a ventral temporal pathway for semantic fluency. Finally, our longitudinal results suggest that the frontal executive pathway requires a longer interval to recover compared to the semantic one.
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Metarugcheep S, Punyabukkana P, Wanvarie D, Hemrungrojn S, Chunharas C, Pratanwanich PN. Selecting the Most Important Features for Predicting Mild Cognitive Impairment from Thai Verbal Fluency Assessments. SENSORS 2022; 22:s22155813. [PMID: 35957370 PMCID: PMC9370961 DOI: 10.3390/s22155813] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2022] [Revised: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 07/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an early stage of cognitive decline or memory loss, commonly found among the elderly. A phonemic verbal fluency (PVF) task is a standard cognitive test that participants are asked to produce words starting with given letters, such as “F” in English and “ก” /k/ in Thai. With state-of-the-art machine learning techniques, features extracted from the PVF data have been widely used to detect MCI. The PVF features, including acoustic features, semantic features, and word grouping, have been studied in many languages but not Thai. However, applying the same PVF feature extraction methods used in English to Thai yields unpleasant results due to different language characteristics. This study performs analytical feature extraction on Thai PVF data to classify MCI patients. In particular, we propose novel approaches to extract features based on phonemic clustering (ability to cluster words by phonemes) and switching (ability to shift between clusters) for the Thai PVF data. The comparison results of the three classifiers revealed that the support vector machine performed the best with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.733 (N = 100). Furthermore, our implemented guidelines extracted efficient features, which support the machine learning models regarding MCI detection on Thai PVF data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suppat Metarugcheep
- Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand;
| | - Proadpran Punyabukkana
- Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand;
- Correspondence:
| | - Dittaya Wanvarie
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand; (D.W.); (P.N.P.)
| | - Solaphat Hemrungrojn
- Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand;
- Cognitive Fitness and Biopsychological Technology Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
| | - Chaipat Chunharas
- Cognitive Clinical & Computational Neuroscience Research Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand;
- Chula Neuroscience Center, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thai Red Cross Society, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
| | - Ploy N. Pratanwanich
- Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand; (D.W.); (P.N.P.)
- Chula Intelligent and Complex Systems Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
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Almeida VN, Radanovic M. Semantic processing and neurobiology in Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Neuropsychologia 2022; 174:108337. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 07/17/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Mueller KD, Du L, Bruno D, Betthauser T, Christian B, Johnson S, Hermann B, Koscik RL. Item-Level Story Recall Predictors of Amyloid-Beta in Late Middle-Aged Adults at Increased Risk for Alzheimer's Disease. Front Psychol 2022; 13:908651. [PMID: 35832924 PMCID: PMC9271832 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.908651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Story recall (SR) tests have shown variable sensitivity to rate of cognitive decline in individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers. Although SR tasks are typically scored by obtaining a sum of items recalled, item-level analyses may provide additional sensitivity to change and AD processes. Here, we examined the difficulty and discrimination indices of each item from the Logical Memory (LM) SR task, and determined if these metrics differed by recall conditions, story version (A vs. B), lexical categories, serial position, and amyloid status. Methods n = 1,141 participants from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention longitudinal study who had item-level data were included in these analyses, as well as a subset of n = 338 who also had amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. LM data were categorized into four lexical categories (proper names, verbs, numbers, and "other"), and by serial position (primacy, middle, and recency). We calculated difficulty and discriminability/memorability by item, category, and serial position and ran separate repeated measures ANOVAs for each recall condition, lexical category, and serial position. For the subset with amyloid imaging, we used a two-sample t-test to examine whether amyloid positive (Aβ+) and amyloid negative (Aβ-) groups differed in difficulty or discrimination for the same summary metrics. Results In the larger sample, items were more difficult (less memorable) in the delayed recall condition across both story A and story B. Item discrimination was higher at delayed than immediate recall, and proper names had better discrimination than any of the other lexical categories or serial position groups. In the subsample with amyloid PET imaging, proper names were more difficult for Aβ+ than Aβ-; items in the verb and "other" lexical categories and all serial positions from delayed recall were more discriminate for the Aβ+ group compared to the Aβ- group. Conclusion This study provides empirical evidence that both LM stories are effective at discriminating ability levels and amyloid status, and that individual items vary in difficulty and discrimination by amyloid status, while total scores do not. These results can be informative for the future development of sensitive tasks or composite scores for early detection of cognitive decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly D. Mueller
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Lianlian Du
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Davide Bruno
- School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Tobey Betthauser
- Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Bradley Christian
- Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Sterling Johnson
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, William S. Middleton Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Bruce Hermann
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
| | - Rebecca Langhough Koscik
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
- Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
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Ovando-Tellez M, Benedek M, Kenett YN, Hills T, Bouanane S, Bernard M, Belo J, Bieth T, Volle E. An investigation of the cognitive and neural correlates of semantic memory search related to creative ability. Commun Biol 2022; 5:604. [PMID: 35710948 PMCID: PMC9203494 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03547-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Creative ideas likely result from searching and combining semantic memory knowledge, yet the mechanisms acting on memory to yield creative ideas remain unclear. Here, we identified the neurocognitive correlates of semantic search components related to creative abilities. We designed an associative fluency task based on polysemous words and distinguished two search components related to clustering and switching between the different meanings of the polysemous words. Clustering correlated with divergent thinking, while switching correlated with the ability to combine remote associates. Furthermore, switching correlated with semantic memory structure and executive abilities, and was predicted by connectivity between the default, control, and salience neural networks. In contrast, clustering relied on interactions between control, salience, and attentional neural networks. Our results suggest that switching captures interactions between memory structure and control processes guiding the search whereas clustering may capture attentional controlled processes for persistent search, and that alternations between exploratory search and focused attention support creativity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcela Ovando-Tellez
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France.
| | | | - Yoed N Kenett
- Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 3200003, Israel
| | - Thomas Hills
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, University Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Sarah Bouanane
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Matthieu Bernard
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Joan Belo
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Theophile Bieth
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France
- Neurology Department, Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, AP-HP, F-75013, Paris, France
| | - Emmanuelle Volle
- Sorbonne University, FrontLab at Paris Brain Institute (ICM), INSERM, CNRS, 75013, Paris, France.
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Miller J, Jones T, Upston J, Deng ZD, McClintock SM, Ryman S, Quinn D, Abbott CC. Ictal Theta Power as an Electroconvulsive Therapy Safety Biomarker: A Pilot Study. J ECT 2022; 38:88-94. [PMID: 35613008 PMCID: PMC10680084 DOI: 10.1097/yct.0000000000000812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the benchmark for treatment resistant depression, yet its cognitive adverse effects have a negative impact on treatment. A predictive safety biomarker early in ECT treatment is needed to identify patients at cognitive risk to maximize therapeutic outcomes and minimize adverse effects. We used ictal electroencephalography frequency analysis from suprathreshold treatments to assess the relationships between ECT dose, ictal power across different frequency domains, and cognitive outcomes. METHODS Seventeen subjects with treatment resistant depression received right unilateral ECT. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was obtained pre-ECT for electric field modeling to assess ECT dose. Serial assessments with 24-lead electroencephalography captured ictal activity. Clinical and cognitive assessments were performed before and after ECT. The primary cognitive outcome was the change in Delis Kaplan Executive Function Verbal Fluency Letter Fluency. RESULTS Ictal theta (4-8 Hz) power in the Fp1/Fp2 channels was associated with both whole-brain electric field strength (t(2,12) = 19.5, P = 0.007)/(t(2,10) = 21.85, P = 0.02) and Delis Kaplan Executive Function Verbal Fluency Letter Fluency scores (t(2,12) = -2.05, P = 0.05)/(t(2,10) = -2.20, P = 0.01). Other frequency bands (beta, alpha, delta, and gamma) did not demonstrate this relationship. CONCLUSIONS This pilot data identify ictal theta power as a potential safety biomarker in ECT and is related to the strength of the ECT dose. Ictal theta power could prove to be a convenient and powerful tool for clinicians to identify those patients most susceptible to cognitive impairment early in the treatment series. Additional studies are needed to assess the role of longitudinal changes in ictal theta power throughout the ECT series.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Miller
- Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Tom Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Joel Upston
- Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Zhi-De Deng
- Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Duke Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Shawn M. McClintock
- Division of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
- Duke Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Davin Quinn
- Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Christopher C. Abbott
- Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM, USA
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Zemla JC. Knowledge Representations Derived From Semantic Fluency Data. Front Psychol 2022; 13:815860. [PMID: 35360609 PMCID: PMC8963473 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815860] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The semantic fluency task is commonly used as a measure of one’s ability to retrieve semantic concepts. While performance is typically scored by counting the total number of responses, the ordering of responses can be used to estimate how individuals or groups organize semantic concepts within a category. I provide an overview of this methodology, using Alzheimer’s disease as a case study for how the approach can help advance theoretical questions about the nature of semantic representation. However, many open questions surrounding the validity and reliability of this approach remain unresolved.
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Tóth O, Pesthy O, Farkas K, Guttengéber A, Komoróczy E, Réthelyi JM, Szuromi B, Németh D. Intact fluency in autism? A comprehensive approach of verbal fluency task including word imageability and concreteness. Autism Res 2022; 15:677-686. [PMID: 35048566 PMCID: PMC9306917 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2021] [Revised: 12/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Verbal fluency is a cognitive function reflecting executive functions and the ability to retrieve the appropriate information from memory quickly. Previous studies reported conflicting results—impaired and intact verbal fluency—in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most studies concentrate on overall word productivity, errors, perseverations, clustering, or switching. We used a comprehensive approach to evaluate the reported discrepancy in the literature and introduced a new angle using the concept of word abstraction and imageability. Moreover, we analyzed the performance in two‐time intervals (0–30 s and 31–60 s) to assess the temporal dynamics of verbal fluency and a possible activation or initiation deficit in autism. Sixteen adults with ASD and 16 neurotypical control participants, matched by gender, age, and education level, participated in our study. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find a significant difference between groups in word productivity, the number of errors, clustering, or temporal dynamics, neither in semantic nor in phonemic fluency tasks. Surprisingly, the two study groups' performance did not differ in terms of imageability or concreteness characteristics either. Our results raise the possibility that verbal fluency performance is intact in autism. We also suggest using a comprehensive approach when measuring fluency in autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Odett Tóth
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Central Campus, Edinburgh, Scotland
| | - Orsolya Pesthy
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Kinga Farkas
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Anna Guttengéber
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Eszter Komoróczy
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - János M Réthelyi
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Bálint Szuromi
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Dezső Németh
- Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,Brain, Memory and Language Research Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.,Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université de Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
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Ahn H, Yi D, Chu K, Joung H, Lee Y, Jung G, Sung K, Han D, Lee JH, Byun MS, Lee DY. Functional Neural Correlates of Semantic Fluency Task Performance in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: An FDG-PET Study. J Alzheimers Dis 2022; 85:1689-1700. [PMID: 34958036 PMCID: PMC9210291 DOI: 10.3233/jad-215292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Total score (TS) of semantic verbal fluency test (SVFT) is generally used to interpret results, but it is ambiguous as to specific neural functions it reflects. Different SVFT strategy scores reflecting qualitative aspects are proposed to identify specific cognitive functions to overcome limitations of using the TS. OBJECTIVE Functional neural correlates of the TS as well as the other strategy scores in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia using Fluorine-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). METHODS Correlations between various SVFT scores (i.e., TS, mean cluster size, switching (SW), hard switching, cluster switching (CSW)) and cerebral glucose metabolism were explored using voxelwise whole-brain approach. Subgroup analyses were also performed based on the diagnosis and investigated the effects of disease severity on the associations. RESULTS Significant positive correlation between TS and cerebral glucose metabolism was found in prefrontal, parietal, cingulate, temporal cortex, and subcortical regions. Significantly increased glucose metabolism associated with the SW were found in similar but smaller regions, mainly in the fronto-parieto-temporal regions. CSW was only correlated with the caudate. In the subgroup analysis conducted to assess different contribution of clinical severity, differential associations between the strategy scores and regional glucose metabolism were found. CONCLUSION SW and CSW may reflect specific language and executive functions better than the TS. The SVFT is influenced by brain dysfunction due to the progression of AD, as demonstrated by the SW with larger involvement of temporal lobe for the AD, and CSW with significant association only for the MCI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyejin Ahn
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Dahyun Yi
- Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea,Correspondence to: Dong Young Lee, MD, PhD, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital & Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 2072 2205; Fax: +82 2 744 7241; and Dahyun Yi, PhD, Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 2072 1722;
| | - Kyungjin Chu
- Korea Counseling Center for Fertility and Depression, National Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Haejung Joung
- Interdisciplinary Program of Cognitive Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Younghwa Lee
- Interdisciplinary Program of Cognitive Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Gijung Jung
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Kiyoung Sung
- Department of Psychiatry, Nowon Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Dongkyun Han
- Jamsil Forest Neuropsychiatric Clinic, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Jun Ho Lee
- Mind Lab The Place Psychiatric Clinic, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Min Soo Byun
- Department of Psychiatry, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Republic of Korea
| | - Dong Young Lee
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea,Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea,Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea,Correspondence to: Dong Young Lee, MD, PhD, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital & Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 2072 2205; Fax: +82 2 744 7241; and Dahyun Yi, PhD, Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, 101 Daehak-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 2072 1722;
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Riello M, Frangakis CE, Ficek B, Webster KT, Desmond JE, Faria AV, Hillis AE, Tsapkini K. Neural Correlates of Letter and Semantic Fluency in Primary Progressive Aphasia. Brain Sci 2021; 12:1. [PMID: 35053745 PMCID: PMC8773895 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12010001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2021] [Revised: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Verbal fluency (VF) is an informative cognitive task. Lesion and functional imaging studies implicate distinct cerebral areas that support letter versus semantic fluency and the understanding of neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying task performance. Most lesion studies include chronic stroke patients. People with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) provide complementary evidence for lesion-deficit associations, as different brain areas are affected in stroke versus PPA. In the present study we sought to determine imaging, clinical and demographic correlates of VF in PPA. Thirty-five patients with PPA underwent an assessment with letter and category VF tasks, evaluation of clinical features and an MRI scan for volumetric analysis. We used stepwise regression models to determine which brain areas are associated with VF performance while acknowledging the independent contribution of clinical and demographic factors. Letter fluency was predominantly associated with language severity (R2 = 38%), and correlated with the volume of the left superior temporal regions (R2 = 12%) and the right dorsolateral prefrontal area (R2 = 5%). Semantic fluency was predominantly associated with dementia severity (R2 = 47%) and correlated with the volume of the left inferior temporal gyrus (R2 = 7%). No other variables were significantly associated with performance in the two VF tasks. We concluded that, independently of disease severity, letter fluency is significantly associated with the volume of frontal and temporal areas whereas semantic fluency is associated mainly with the volume of temporal areas. Furthermore, our findings indicated that clinical severity plays a critical role in explaining VF performance in PPA, compared to the other clinical and demographic factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marianna Riello
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
| | - Constantine E. Frangakis
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA;
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA;
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA
| | - Bronte Ficek
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
| | - Kimberly T. Webster
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
- Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA
| | - John E. Desmond
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
| | - Andreia V. Faria
- Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21227, USA;
| | - Argye E. Hillis
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Kyrana Tsapkini
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; (M.R.); (B.F.); (K.T.W.); (J.E.D.); (A.E.H.)
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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47
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Robinson GA, Tjokrowijoto P, Ceslis A, Biggs V, Bozzali M, Walker DG. Fluency test generation and errors in focal frontal and posterior lesions. Neuropsychologia 2021; 163:108085. [PMID: 34793818 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The number produced on fluency tasks is widely used to measure voluntary response generation. To further evaluate the relationship between generation, errors, and the area of anatomical damage we administered eight fluency tasks (word, design, gesture, ideational) to a large group of focal frontal (n = 69) and posterior (n = 43) patients and controls (n = 150). Lesions were analysed by a finer-grained frontal localisation method, and traditional subdivisions (anterior/posterior, left/right frontal). Thus, we compared patients with Lateral lesions to patients with Medial lesions. Our results show that all fluency tasks are sensitive to frontal lobe damage for the number of correct responses and, for the first time, we provide evidence that seven fluency tasks show frontal sensitivity in terms of errors (perseverations, rule-breaks). Lateral (not Medial) patients produced the highest error rates, indicative of task-setting or monitoring difficulties. There was a right frontal effect for perseverative errors when retrieving known or stored items and rule-break errors when creating novel responses. Left lateral effects were specific to phonemic word fluency rule-breaks and perseverations for meaningless gesture fluency. In addition, our generation output and error findings support a frontal role in novelty processes. Finally, we confirm our previous generation findings suggesting critical roles of the superior medial region in energization and the left inferior frontal region in selection (Robinson et al., 2012). Overall, these results support the notion that frontal functions comprise a set of highly specialised cognitive processes, supported by distinct frontal regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gail A Robinson
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia; School of Psychology the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia.
| | | | - Amelia Ceslis
- School of Psychology the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Vivien Biggs
- BrizBrain & Spine, The Wesley Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Marco Bozzali
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Torino, Italy; Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, East Sussex, UK; Neuroimaging Laboratory, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - David G Walker
- BrizBrain & Spine, The Wesley Hospital, Brisbane, Australia
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Pagliarin KC, Fernandes EG, Muller MD, Portalete CR, Fonseca RP, Altmann RF. Clustering and switching in verbal fluency: a comparison between control and individuals with brain damage. Codas 2021; 34:e20200365. [PMID: 34816946 PMCID: PMC9769432 DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20212020365] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE The aim of this study is to analyze and compare the performance and strategies used by control subjects and patients with unilateral brain damage on phonemic and semantic Verbal Fluency tasks. METHODS The sample consisted of 104 participants divided into four groups (26 with left hemisphere damage and aphasia- LHDa, 28 with left hemisphere damage and no aphasia- LHDna, 25 with right hemisphere damage- RHD and 25 neurologically healthy control subjects). All participants were administered the phonemic ("M" letter-based) and semantic (animals) verbal fluency tasks from the Montreal-Toulouse Language Assessment Battery (MTL-BR). RESULTS Patients in the LHDa group showed the worst performance (fewer words produced, fewer clusters and switches) in both types of fluency task. RHD group showed fewer switching productions when compared with controls and LHDna had fewer words productions than controls in the first 30 seconds block. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that the LHDa group obtained lower scores in most measures of SVF and PVF when compared to the other groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karina Carlesso Pagliarin
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Distúrbios da Comunicação Humana, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
| | - Eduarda Giovelli Fernandes
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Distúrbios da Comunicação Humana, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
| | - Maryndia Diehl Muller
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Distúrbios da Comunicação Humana, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
| | - Caroline Rodrigues Portalete
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Distúrbios da Comunicação Humana, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
| | - Rochele Paz Fonseca
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul – PUCRS, Porto Alegre (RS), Brasil.
| | - Raira Fernanda Altmann
- Programa de Pós-Graduação em Distúrbios da Comunicação Humana, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria – UFSM, Santa Maria (RS), Brasil.
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49
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Rofes A, Sampedro B, Abusamra L, Cañataro P, Jonkers R, Abusamra V. What Drives Task Performance in Fluency Tasks in People With HIV? Front Psychol 2021; 12:721588. [PMID: 34721177 PMCID: PMC8548841 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.721588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Fluency tasks require language (i.e., semantics, phonological output lexicon, and phonological assembly) and executive functions (i.e., inhibition; mental set shifting; updating, and monitoring). Little is known about whether people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are more impaired on a specific type of fluency task and what aspects of language and executive functions drive such performance. Aims: To understand (1) whether people with HIV are more impaired in animal, letter, or unconstrained fluency relative to a normative sample; (2) whether there exist differences between tasks relative to the total number of words; and (3) which aspects of executive function and language are involved in their performance. Methods: Data from animal, letter, and unconstrained fluency of 50 Spanish-speaking people with HIV were analyzed. The number of switches and mean cluster size for each task and 10 word properties (e.g., frequency, age of acquisition, length in graphemes) for each of the correct words were measured. A chi-square test was used to address Aim 1, linear mixed effects models for Aim 2, and random forests and conditional inference trees for Aim 3. The results were cross-validated with a normative sample. Results: People with HIV were not more impaired in animal, letter, or unconstrained fluency relative to a normative sample. People with HIV produced fewer words in letter fluency compared to animal and unconstrained fluency. In addition, they produced fewer words in animal fluency compared to unconstrained fluency. Number of switches emerged as the most important variable to predict the total number of correct words when considering the three tasks together and for each task separately. Word frequency was relevant to predict animal fluency, age of acquisition to predict letter fluency, and cluster size to predict unconstrained fluency. These results were cross-validated with the exception cluster size. Conclusion: People with HIV rely on language (phonological output lexicon, not necessarily semantics) and executive functioning (updating and monitoring) to produce words in fluency tasks. These results concur with the current literature. Future work may correlate fluency scores with other tests measuring language and executive functions or study other types of fluency tasks (e.g., action, cities, supermarket, and professions).
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrià Rofes
- Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Bárbara Sampedro
- Linguistics School, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | | | | | - Roel Jonkers
- Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Valeria Abusamra
- Linguistics School, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.,Hospital Interzonal General de Agudos Eva Perón, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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50
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Cipolotti L, Xu T, Harry B, Mole J, Lakey G, Shallice T, Chan E, Nachev P. Multi-model mapping of phonemic fluency. Brain Commun 2021; 3:fcab232. [PMID: 34693285 PMCID: PMC8530259 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab232] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2021] [Revised: 09/10/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The voluntary generation of non-overlearned responses is usually assessed with phonemic fluency. Like most frontal tasks, it draws upon different complex processes and systems whose precise nature is still incompletely understood. Many claimed aspects regarding the pattern of phonemic fluency performance and its underlying anatomy remain controversial. Major limitations of past investigations include small sample size, scant analysis of phonemic output and methodologically insufficient lesion analysis approaches. We investigated a large number of patients with focal unilateral right or left frontal (n = 110) or posterior (n = 100) or subcortical (n = 65) lesions imaged with magnetic resonance or computed tomography and compared their performance on the number of overall responses, words produced over time, extremely infrequent/unknown words and inappropriate words generated. We also employed, for the first time parcel-based lesion-symptom mapping, tract-wise statistical analysis as well as Bayesian multi-variate analysis based on meta-analytically defined functional region of interest, including their interactions. We found that left frontal damage was associated with greater impairment than right frontal or posterior damage on overall fluency performance, suggesting that phonemic fluency shows specificity to frontal lesions. We also found that subcorticals, similar to frontals, performed significantly worse than posteriors on overall performance suggesting that subcortical regions are also involved. However, only frontal effects were found for words produced over time, extremely infrequent/unknown and inappropriate words. Parcel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis found that worse fluency performance was associated with damage to the posterior segment of the left frontal middle and superior gyrus, the left dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus and caudate nucleus. Tract-wise statistical analysis revealed that disconnections of left frontal tracts are critical. Bayesian multi-variate models of lesions and disconnectome maps implicated left middle and inferior frontal and left dorsomedial frontal regions. Our study suggests that a set of well localized left frontal areas together with subcortical regions and several left frontal tracts are critical for word generation. We speculate that a left lateralized network exists. It involves medial, frontal regions supporting the process of 'energization', which sustains activation for the duration of the task and middle and inferior frontal regions concerned with 'selection', required due to the competition produced by associated stored words, respectively. The methodology adopted represents a promising and empirically robust approach in furthering our understanding of the neurocognitive architecture underpinning executive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa Cipolotti
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK.,Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Tianbo Xu
- Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Bronson Harry
- The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney, Penrith South, NSW NSW 2747, Australia
| | - Joe Mole
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK.,Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Grace Lakey
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Tim Shallice
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK.,International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA-ISAS), Trieste 34136, Italy
| | - Edgar Chan
- Department of Neuropsychology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG, UK.,Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Parashkev Nachev
- Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
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