Quanti-qualitative components of the semantic verbal fluency test in cognitively healthy controls, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia subtypes

Objectives: Phonemic and semantic fluency tasks are used for verbal fluency (VF) evaluation. The present study aimed to select the most appropriate semantic categories and the most frequent phonemes of Persian as items for the VF test. Then, we determine the test results in differentiation between cognitively intact people and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 people (60 cognitively intact, 30 with AD, and 30 with MCI) in two phases. In phase one, linguists determine the most frequent phonemes at the beginning of Persian words and the most frequent semantic categories based on a survey. In phase two, the verbal fluency test was administered to cognitively intact people and those with cognitive impairment (patients with AD and MCI). One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression were used for statistical analysis. Results: The normal subjects scored significantly higher in all phonemic and semantic fluency tasks than the patients with AD and people with MCI (P<0.05). Regarding the phonemic VF task, the phonemes /sh/, /s/, and then /a/ were better in differentiating the MCI and AD groups from the normal group. Regarding the semantic VF task, the animals’ category was better differentiated the MCI and AD groups from the normal group. Discussion: Comparing frequent phonemes and semantic categories of Persian across three groups of normal, AD, and MCI showed that some phonemes and semantic categories can be more differentiating in the VF task. However, it is a preliminary validation study, and this topic needs more investigation in the future.

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Semantic Relations in a Categorical Verbal Fluency Test: An Exploratory Investigation in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02797 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Davide Quaranta ◽

Chiara Piccininni ◽

Alessia Caprara ◽

Alessia Malandrino ◽

Guido Gainotti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Semantic Relations ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Exploratory Investigation ◽

Fluency Test

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Clustering and switching during a semantic verbal fluency test contribute to differential diagnosis of cognitive impairment

Neuroscience Bulletin ◽

10.1007/s12264-013-1301-7 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 75-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Qianhua Zhao ◽

Qihao Guo ◽

Zhen Hong

Keyword(s):

Differential Diagnosis ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Semantic Verbal Fluency ◽

Fluency Test

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Graph analysis of verbal fluency test discriminate between patients with Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and normal elderly controls

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnagi.2014.00185 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Laiss Bertola ◽

NatÃ¡lia B. Mota ◽

Mauro Copelli ◽

Thiago Rivero ◽

Breno Satler Diniz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Graph Analysis ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Fluency Test

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Cognitive Performance in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder vs Healthy Controls: A Neuropsychological Investigation

Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health ◽

10.2174/1745017901713010071 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 71-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

M. Carlotta Palazzo ◽

Chiara Arici ◽

Laura Cremaschi ◽

Marta Cristoffanini ◽

Cristina Dobrea ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Cognitive Task ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Age Related ◽

Bipolar Patients ◽

Fluency Test

Objectives: Cognitive impairment may affect patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) beyond the acute episodes, qualifying as a potential endophenotype. However, which cognitive domains are specifically affected in euthymic patients with BD and the potential influence of confounding factors (e.g., age and concomitant pharmacological treatment) are still a matter of debate. The present study was, therefore, conducted to assess cognitive performance across specific domains in euthymic bipolar patients, not older than 50 years (to avoid potential age-related bias) versus healthy controls (HCs). Methods: A cognitive task battery, including the Wisconsin Card Test, Span Attention Test, Tower of London, Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Matrices Scores and N-Back, was administered to 62 subjects (30 bipolar patients and 32 matched HCs) and differences between the groups analyzed. Results: Bipolar patients performed significantly worse than HCs in the Span Forward task, in the expression of Verbal Fluency Test (Category) and in the N-Back task (all p<.05), with marginal differences between BD I and BD II patients. Conclusion: The present study pointed out significant differences in terms of cognitive performance between euthymic bipolar patients and HCs, supporting the notion that specific cognitive functions may remain impaired even after the resolution of the acute episodes in subjects suffering from BD. Future studies on larger samples are warranted to confirm the present results and further explore potential differences in cognitive impairment across specific bipolar subtypes.

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Cognitive impairment and physical frailty in older adults in secondary health care

Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP ◽

10.1590/s1980-220x2019029803687 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 55 ◽

Author(s):

Bruno Henrique de Mello ◽

Maria Helena Lenardt ◽

Dayana Cristina Moraes ◽

Larissa Sayuri Setoguchi ◽

Marcia Daniele Seima ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Health Care ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Ratio Test ◽

Physical Frailty ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Semantic Verbal Fluency ◽

Secondary Health Care ◽

Fluency Test

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the association between cognitive impairment and physical frailty in older adults in secondary health care. Method: This is a cross-sectional study carried out with people aged ≥ 60 years, assisted at a geriatric and gerontology outpatient clinic. For cognitive screening, the Mini Mental State Examination, the semantic verbal fluency test, and frailty assessment using the physical frailty phenotype were used. The likelihood ratio test was applied to the predictive model. Results: 407 older adults participated in the study. Cognitive impairment was observed in 58.5% (n=238) of the sample, being higher in frail (n=66; 75%). A change in the semantic verbal fluency test was identified in 22% (n=90), with a higher prevalence in pre-frail patients (55.5%; n=226). It was identified 2.5 times more chance of a frail older person, when compared to a non-frail one, to have cognitive impairment (95% CI, +0.947 - 0.322). The chance for alteration in the semantic verbal fluency test was 5.4 times higher in frail compared to non-frail ones (95% CI, 1.68 - 0.38). Conclusion: A relationship was observed between cognitive impairment and physical frailty. Screening for frailty in geriatric nursing practice and the implementation of specific care is recommended.

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Graph analysis of verbal fluency test discriminates between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls

European Neuropsychopharmacology ◽

10.1016/s0924-977x(17)31496-7 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. S829-S830

Author(s):

K. Machalska ◽

A. Turek ◽

A.A. Chrobak ◽

A. Tereszko ◽

M. Siwek ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Graph Analysis ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Verbal Fluency Test ◽

Fluency Test

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Effects of educational background on verbal fluency task performance in older adults with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610210000839 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 995-1002 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Naoko Kawano ◽

Hiroyuki Umegaki ◽

Yusuke Suzuki ◽

Sayaka Yamamoto ◽

Nanaka Mogi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Test Scores ◽

Verbal Fluency ◽

Educational Background ◽

Cognitive State ◽

Category Fluency ◽

Fluency Task ◽

Fluency Test

ABSTRACTBackground: Previous studies have shown that the verbal fluency test (VFT) is a sensitive measure of cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, other studies have shown that the performances were significantly influenced by education in the normal elderly population. In order to examine the utility of the VFT as a tool for screening for AD, it is necessary to study the effect of education not only in the cognitively intact population but also in the population of early AD patients.Methods: Patients with AD (n = 345) and individuals with amnestic type of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (n = 123) were asked to generate as many words as possible belonging to a category “animal” and beginning with “か [ka]” in syllabic Japanese “kana” script. In order to determine the education effect after adjusting for age and cognitive state on the VFT performance in early stage of AD, we performed multiple regression analysis with 396 individuals including both amnestic MCI and AD.Results: After adjusting for patients’ age, sex, and cognitive state, the years of education were significantly related to category fluency test scores, but not significantly related to letter fluency test scores.Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that a category fluency performance reflected not only AD-specific changes but also educational background. These results suggest the limitation of using the category fluency task for screening subjects at risk for developing AD without taking subjects' educational background into consideration.

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