B-71 The Effect of Bilingualism on Verbal and Design Fluency Performance in Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors and Healthy Adults

Abstract

Abstract Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts neurocognitive function. Language is also known to influence test performances. We examined the relationship between TBI and monolingualism/bilingualism on verbal and design fluency tests. Method The sample (N = 74) consisted of 33 healthy controls (18 bilingual; 15 monolingual), 15 acute TBI participants (6 bilingual; 9 monolingual), and 26 chronic TBI participants (15 bilingual; 11 monolingual). Acute TBI participants were tested 6 months post-injury and chronic TBI participants were tested 12 months or more post-injury. The Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Letter Fluency (DKEFS-LF), Category Fluency (DKEFS-CF), Category Switching Fluency (DKEFS-CSF), and global verbal fluency composite (DKEFS-GVF) scores assessed verbal fluency; DKEFS fill-dots (DKEFS-FD), empty dots (DFEFS-ED), dot switching (DKEFS-DS), and global design fluency composite (DKEFS-GDF) scores assessed design fluency; and global verbal and non-verbal fluency composite (DKEFS-GF) assessed overall fluency. 3X2 ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the effect of monolingualism/bilingualism on fluency performance in TBI and controls. Results The groups (control and TBI groups) differed for DKEFS-LF, p = .048, ηp² = .09, DKEFS-CF, p = .000, ηp² = .21, DKEFS-GVF, p = .004, ηp² = .15, DKEFS-ED, p = .008, ηp² = .13, DKEFS-GF, p = .001, ηp² = .20, with controls outperforming TBI groups on the DKEFS-CF, DKEFS-GVF, and DKEFS-GF. Furthermore, controls outperformed acute TBI participants on the DKEFS-LF and DKEFS-ED. Main effects were found for bilingualism/monolingualism on DKEFS-CF, p = .035, ηp² = .06, with bilinguals outperforming monolinguals. No interactions were found. Conclusion The TBI group had poor verbal and design fluency in contrast controls. Unexpectedly, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on a task of verbal category fluency. Revealing that in the present study bilinguals have better semantic verbal fluency abilities.