scholarly journals Developing a Persian Verbal Fluency Test and Comparing the Results Between Healthy Persian Speakers and Persian Speakers Patients With Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-398
Author(s):  
Ahmad Reza Khatoonabadi ◽  
◽  
Mahshid Aghajanzadeh ◽  
Saman Maroufizadeh ◽  
Zahra Vahabi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Normal Group ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Verbal Fluency Test ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Cognitively Intact ◽  
Fluency Test

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.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
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

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

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 995-1002 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Verbal Fluency Test in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
pp. 095-099
Author(s):  
Esteban Vaucheret Paz ◽  
Celeste Puga ◽  
Christy Ekonen ◽  
Paula Pintos ◽  
Isabel Lascombes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functions ◽  
Scale Score ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Verbal Fluency Test ◽  
Fluency Test

Abstract Background The verbal fluency task is a widely used psychometric test to account for cognitive functions, particularly, verbal and executive functions. Being an easy and fast test to administer, it is a good neuropsychological tool in low technology environments. Our objective was to analyze the performance in verbal fluency of Spanish-speaking children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Methods We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study to analyze the performance of children who had undergone a verbal fluency test in a neuropsychological assessment. Results We included 115 participants. There were 41 (35.65%) participants with low intellectual performance (LIP), 63 (54.78%) with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and 11(9.57%) participants with dyslexia. Participants with LIP showed lower phonological and semantic fluency scores than participants with ADHD, and a lower performance in semantic fluency than the dyslexia group. The probability of having LIP was 6.12 times greater when somebody had a scale score lower than 7 in the phonological task and it was 7.9 times greater when the scale score was lower than 7 in the semantic task. Conclusion There was a direct relationship between Full Scale Intelligence Quotient and verbal fluency test performance, the latter being a brief and effective neuropsychological test that can reveal deficit not only in executive functions and verbal abilities but also detect LIP.

Verbal fluency as a screening tool for mild cognitive impairment

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 1055-1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle McDonnell ◽  
Lauren Dill ◽  
Stella Panos ◽  
Stacy Amano ◽  
Warren Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Normal Aging ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Word Association Test ◽  
Phonemic Fluency ◽  
Discriminant Ability ◽  
State Examination

ABSTRACTObjectives:The goal of this study was to evaluate the ability of semantic (animal naming) and phonemic (FAS) fluency in their ability to discriminate between normal aging, amnestic-Mild Cognitive Impairment (a-MCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).Design:We used binary logistic regressions, multinomial regressions, and discriminant analysis to evaluate the predictive value of semantic and phonemic fluency in regards to specific diagnostic classifications.Setting:Outpatient geriatric neuropsychology clinic.Participants:232 participants (normal aging = 99, a-MCI = 90, AD = 43; mean age = 65.75 years).Measurements:Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Controlled Oral Word Association TestResults:Results indicate that semantic and phonemic fluency were significant predictors of diagnostic classification, and semantic fluency explained a greater amount of the discriminant ability of the model.Conclusions:These results suggest that verbal fluency, particularly semantic fluency, may be an accurate and efficient tool in screening for early dementia in time-limited medical settings.

scholarly journals A cross-linguistic comparison of category verbal fluency test (ANIMALS): a systematic review

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Ardila
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Linguistic Information ◽  
Verbal Fluency Test ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Fluency Test

Abstract Background Cross-linguistic information about performance in neuropsychological verbal tests is extremely scarce. It has been suggested that verbal fluency test using animal fluency test is one of the few tests fulfilling the fundamental criteria desirable in a robust neuropsychological test. Objective To compare and establish cross-linguistic information about performance in the animal fluency test. Results In an extensive search, it was found that norms for the semantic fluency test using the category ANIMALS are available in 15 different languages. These languages represent a relatively broad spectrum of world languages, including not only Indo-European languages, but also Semitic, Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, Dravidian, and even Amerindian languages. Normative data in these 15 languages are analyzed and the results are compared. Conclusions It is concluded that (a) pure linguistic factors, such as type of language and word-length, seemingly do not significantly affect the performance in this test; (b) two major demographic variables—age and education—account for a significant percentage of the variance in this test; the effect of sex seems to be neglectable; (c) in bilinguals, when the native language has few speakers and/or is a marginalized language, a very low score can be observed in the native language, even lower than in the second language; (d) there is a frequently overlooked major factor accounting for differences in cognitive test performance: the effort made in performing the test. It depends on the significance given to the test performance. Effort is quite variable across cultures and is higher in psychometric-oriented societies.

Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: Clustering and Switching Analyses in Verbal Fluency Test

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 511-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Galtier ◽  
Antonieta Nieto ◽  
Jesús N. Lorenzo ◽  
José Barroso
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
Card Sorting ◽  
Test Analysis

AbstractObjectives: Mild cognitive impairment is common in non-demented Parkinson disease patients (PD-MCI) and is considered as a risk factor for dementia. Executive dysfunction has been widely described in PD and the Verbal Fluency Tests (VFT) are often used for executive function assessment in this pathology. The Movement Disorder Society (MDS) published guidelines for PD-MCI diagnosis in 2012. However, no investigation has focused on the qualitative analysis of VFT in PD-MCI. The aim of this work was to study the clustering and switching strategies in VFT in PD-MCI patients. Moreover, these variables are considered as predictors for PD-MCI diagnosis. Methods: Forty-three PD patients and twenty normal controls were evaluated with a neuropsychological protocol and the MDS criteria for PD-MCI were applied. Clustering and switching analysis were conducted for VFT. Results: The percentage of patients diagnosed with PD-MCI was 37.2%. The Mann-Whitney U test analysis showed that PD-MCI performed poorly in different cognitive measures (digit span, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, judgment of line orientation, and comprehension test), compared to PD patients without mild cognitive impairment (PD-nMCI). Phonemic fluency analyses showed that PD-MCI patients produced fewer words and switched significantly less, compared to controls and PD-nMCI. Concerning semantic fluency, the PD-MCI group differed significantly, compared to controls and PD-nMCI, in switches. Discriminant function analyses and logistic regression analyses revealed that switches predicted PD-MCI. Conclusions: PD-MCI patients showed poor performance in VFT related to the deficient use of production strategies. The number of switches is a useful predictor for incident PD-MCI. (JINS, 2017, 23, 511–520)

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