Verbal fluency in schizophrenia: The role of semantic clustering in category instance generation

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
PH Robert ◽  
V Migneco ◽  
D Marmod ◽  
I Chaix ◽  
S Thauby ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Normal Population ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Semantic Clustering ◽  
Instance Generation ◽  
Category Instance ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients

SummaryThe aim of this study was to determine whether schizophrenic patients' impairment in semantic verbal fluency tasks is due to difficulties in organizing their search or, in other words, in organizing output in terms of clusters of meaningfully related words. Consecutive association of words belonging to subcategories of the semantic task was defined as semantic clustering. A categorical verbal fluency task was first administered to 100 healthy subjects and then to 22 schizophrenic patients and 22 healthy subjects matched for sex, age and education. In the normal population, semantic clustering was found to be involved in word generation. A large number of semantic clusters indicated efficient organization of semantic knowledge and led to better word production. Schizophrenic patients showed impaired verbal fluency and generated a smaller number of semantic clusters than the control subjects. These findings point to a defect in self-initiation of semantic categorization in schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation Does Not Have Any Acute Effects on Verbal Fluency or on Speed of Word Generation in Parkinson’s Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Atkinson-Clement ◽  
Friederike Leimbach ◽  
Marjan Jahanshahi
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Subthalamic Nucleus ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Time Pattern ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation ◽  
Stn Dbs ◽  
Fluency Task

Background. Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) has been shown to be generally safe from a cognitive perspective, with consistent evidence that the major impact of STN-DBS in Parkinson’s disease (PD) is on verbal fluency. Objective. The aim of this study was first to identify the influence of acute manipulation of STN-DBS in PD on the number and time pattern of word generation on different verbal fluency (VF) tasks, phonemic, switching, and cued switching, and second to determine whether cueing improved VF and if cueing effects interacted with STN-DBS effects. Methods. Parallel versions of these three verbal fluency tasks were completed by 31 patients with Parkinson’s disease who had had bilateral DBS of the STN, twice, with DBS On and Off, with the order counterbalanced across patients. Results. There was no effect of acute STN-DBS on the total number of words generated during verbal fluency. As expected, the number of words generated significantly declined over the six 10-second intervals of the verbal fluency tasks, but this time pattern of word generation was not altered by STN-DBS. External cueing significantly increased the number of words generated relative to an uncued switching verbal fluency task, but the cueing effect on VF was not altered by STN-DBS. Conclusion. In conclusion, (i) acute STN-DBS manipulation did not alter either verbal fluency performance or the time pattern of word generation and (ii) external cueing significantly improved verbal fluency performance both with STN-DBS On and Off.

scholarly journals Semantic clustering in verbal fluency: schizophrenic patients versus control participants

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (05) ◽  
Author(s):  
B. ELVEVÅG ◽  
J. E. FISHER ◽  
J. M. GURD ◽  
T. E. GOLDBERG
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Semantic Clustering ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients

Verbal Fluency in Schizophrenia: Reduction in Semantic Store

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Y.L. Chen ◽  
Eric Y.H. Chen ◽  
Charlotte K.Y. Chan ◽  
Linda C.W. Lam ◽  
Felice Lieh-Mak
Keyword(s):  
Patient Group ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Unresolved Issue ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Semantic Verbal Fluency ◽  
Food Animal ◽  
Fluency Task

Objective: This is a study of the word production of patients with schizophrenia using a semantic verbal fluency task to address the unresolved issue of retrieval or storage impairment. Method: Twenty-one patients with schizophrenia and 11 matched healthy subjects performed a semantic verbal fluency task on ‘food’, ‘animal’ and ‘transport’ categories in Cantonese for 3 minutes each on five separate trials. Results: Patients generated significantly fewer numbers of words compared with control on each trial. The estimated lexicon size of the patients was significantly smaller than that of the equivalent group. The amount of shared words and variable words generated in all five trials were reduced in the patient group. Conclusions: Our results suggest that poor verbal fluency in patients with schizophrenia may partly be attributable to reduction in semantic store. The importance of temporal lobe involvement on verbal fluency deficits needs to be emphasised as an integral part of the neurobiological basis of schizophrenia research.

scholarly journals fNIRS Evaluation of Frontal and Temporal Cortex Activation by Verbal Fluency Task and High-Level Cognition Task for Detecting Anxiety and Depression

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuenan Lang ◽  
Dan Wen ◽  
Qiqi Li ◽  
Qin Yin ◽  
Mingyu Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Cerebral Oxygen ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
The Subject ◽  
High Level ◽  
Fluency Task

Anxiety and depression are widespread psychosis which are believed to affect cerebral metabolism, especially in frontal and temporal cortex. The comorbidity patients of anxiety and depression (A&D) have more serious clinical symptoms. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive modality used to monitor human brain oxygenation, and it could be considered as a potential tool to detect psychosis which may lead to abnormal cerebral oxygen status when the brain is activated. However, how sensitive the cerebral oxygenation response to the cortex activation and whether these responses are consistent at different stages of A&D or different regions still remains unclear. In this study, a conventional physiological paradigm for cortex activation, i.e., verbal fluency task (VFT), and a relatively new paradigm, i.e., high-level cognition task (HCT), were compared to detect A&D through a longitudinal measurement of cerebral oxygen status by fNIRS. The A&D patients at the acute, consolidation and maintenance stages as well as the healthy subjects participated in the VFT and HCT paradigms, respectively. For the VTF paradigm, the subject was instructed to answer questions of phrase constructions within 60 s. For the HCT paradigm, the subject was instructed to categorize items, logical reasoning, and comprehensive judgment and write down the answers within 60 s. For most of the subjects, the oxy-Hb is found to increase remarkably, accompanied with a relatively small reduction in deoxy-Hb when subject to both paradigms. The statistical analyses show a relatively large variability within any group, leading to the significant difference that was only found between A&D at the acute stage and healthy subjects in the temporal lobe region (p < 0.001). Nevertheless, HCT would activate more oxygen increment when compared with the VFT, with a large integral value in oxy-Hb. On average, the oxy-Hb integral value of the A&D patients differs substantially at different stages when subject to HCT paradigm. Moreover, the prefrontal lobe and temporal lobe responses were more consistent to the HCT paradigm rather than the VFT paradigm. Under the VFT paradigm, however, no remarkable difference in integral value was found among the three stages, either at the prefrontal lobe or at the temporal lobe. This study indicated that HCT, which is intensively involved in brain function, would activate more oxygenation changes in the cerebral cortex. Additionally, with good performance at distinguishing different stages according to the oxy-Hb criterion, the HCT has the potential to evaluate the therapeutic effects for A&D patients.

scholarly journals Regional Brain Activity in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients during the Performance of a Verbal Fluency Task

1995 ◽  
Vol 167 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. D. Frith ◽  
K. J. Friston ◽  
S. Herold ◽  
D. Silbersweig ◽  
P. Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Flow ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenic ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
Superior Temporal Cortex ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Willed Action ◽  
Fluency Task

BackgroundThis study examined the pattern of cerebral blood flow observed in chronic schizophrenic patients while they performed a paced verbal fluency task. Such tasks engage a distributed brain system associated with willed action. Since willed action is impaired in many chronic schizophrenic patients we hypothesised that task performance would be associated with an abnormal pattern of blood flow.MethodPositron emission tomography (PET) was applied to 18 chronic schizophrenic patients stratified into three groups on the basis of verbal fluency performance and current symptoms. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured while the patients performed (a) verbal fluency, (b) word categorisation, and (c) word repetition. Results were compared with six normal controls matched for age, sex and premorbid IQ. Analysis was restricted to six brain regions previously identified in studies of normal volunteers.ResultsIn five brain areas, including the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the patients showed the same pattern of activation as control subjects. However, in the left superior temporal cortex, all patient groups failed to show the normal decrease in blood flow when verbal fluency was compared with word repetition.ConclusionThese observations suggest that (a) chronic schizophrenic patients can show a normal magnitude of frontal activation when matched for performance with controls, and (b) they fail to show the expected reductions of activity in the superior temporal cortex. This latter result may reflect abnormal functional connectivity between frontal and temporal cortex.

Patients with amnestic MCI Fail to Adapt Executive Control When Repeatedly Tested with Semantic Verbal Fluency Tasks

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Johannes Tröger ◽  
Hali Lindsay ◽  
Mario Mina ◽  
Nicklas Linz ◽  
Stefan Klöppel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Control ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Fixed Time ◽  
Semantic Space ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Verbal Fluency ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Theoretical View ◽  
First Time

Abstract Objective: Semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks require individuals to name items from a specified category within a fixed time. An impaired SVF performance is well documented in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI). The two leading theoretical views suggest either loss of semantic knowledge or impaired executive control to be responsible. Method: We assessed SVF 3 times on 2 consecutive days in 29 healthy controls (HC) and 29 patients with aMCI with the aim to answer the question which of the two views holds true. Results: When doing the task for the first time, patients with aMCI produced fewer and more common words with a shorter mean response latency. When tested repeatedly, only healthy volunteers increased performance. Likewise, only the performance of HC indicated two distinct retrieval processes: a prompt retrieval of readily available items at the beginning of the task and an active search through semantic space towards the end. With repeated assessment, the pool of readily available items became larger in HC, but not patients with aMCI. Conclusion: The production of fewer and more common words in aMCI points to a smaller search set and supports the loss of semantic knowledge view. The failure to improve performance as well as the lack of distinct retrieval processes point to an additional impairment in executive control. Our data did not clearly favour one theoretical view over the other, but rather indicates that the impairment of patients with aMCI in SVF is due to a combination of both.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Attention in Post-Lexical Processes of Utterance Production: Dual-Task Cost in Younger and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110341
Author(s):  
Maryll Fournet ◽  
Michaela Pernon ◽  
Sabina Catalano Chiuvé ◽  
Ursula Lopez ◽  
Marina Laganaro
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Verbal Task ◽  
Lexical Selection ◽  
Speech Task ◽  
Verbal Fluency Task ◽  
Dual Task Cost ◽  
Lexical Processes ◽  
Fluency Task

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.

scholarly journals Mild Cognitive Impairments Moderate the Effect of Time on Verbal Fluency Performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Demetriou ◽  
Roee Holtzer
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Cognitive Impairments ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Transitional State ◽  
Automatic Retrieval ◽  
Retrieval Processes ◽  
Incident Dementia ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Category Fluency

AbstractObjectives: Mild cognitive impairments (MCI) is a transitional state in aging associated with increased risk of incident dementia. The current study investigated whether MCI status moderated the effect of time on word generation during verbal fluency tasks. Specifically, the objective was to determine whether MCI status had differential effects on initial automatic or latter more effortful retrieval processes of fluency tasks. Methods: Participants were community residing older adults enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study. Of the 408 participants, 353 were normal (age=76.06±6.61; %female=57.8) and 55 were diagnosed with MCI (age=78.62±7.00; %female=52.7). Phonemic and category fluency were each administered for 60 s, but performance was recorded at three consecutive 20-s intervals (0–20 s [T1], 21–40 s [T2], 41–60 s [T3]. Separate linear mixed effects models for each fluency task were used to determine the effects of group, time, and their interaction on word generation. Results: In both fluency tasks, word generation declined as a function of time. Individuals with MCI generated fewer words compared to controls during the first 20 s of phonemic (beta=−1.56; p<.001; d=0.28) and category fluency (beta=−1.85; p<.001; d=0.37). Group by time interactions revealed that individuals with MCI demonstrated attenuated declines in word generation from the first to the second and third time intervals of both phonemic ([T1 vs. T2] beta=2.17, p=.001; d=0.41; [T1 vs. T3]beta=2.28, p=.001; d=0.45) and category ([T1 vs. T2] beta= 2.22, p=.002; d=0.50; [T1 vs. T3]beta=3.16, p<.001; d=0.71) fluency. Conclusions: Early automatic retrieval processes in verbal fluency tasks are compromised in MCI. (JINS, 2017, 23, 44–55)

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