Measures Of Verbal Fluency Research Articles

The Reliability and Validity of the Action Fluency Test in Healthy College Students.

This study examined the test-retest reliability and construct validity of the Action Fluency Test (AFT) as a measure of executive functioning. Using a correlational design, 128 healthy college students (M Age = 19.24, SD = 2.01; M education = 13.29 years, SD = 0.81) completed the AFT, and measures of verbal and figural fluency, executive functioning and other relevant constructs (e.g., vocabulary, working memory, and attention). Coefficients of stability were acceptable for AFT correct words (r = .76; p < .01), but not for errors (r = .41) or perseverations (r = .14). No practice effects were observed upon repeat testing (M interval = 39.21 days). Divergent validity evidence was mixed. AFT scores were unrelated to working memory and perceptual-reasoning abilities; however, correlations with vocabulary (r = .32; p < .01) and information-processing speed (r = .30; p < .01) were greater than associations between AFT scores and executive measures. Regarding convergent validity, AFT scores correlated with other fluency tasks (r = .4 range), but correlations with measures of executive functioning were absent or small. Action and letter fluency correlated with measures of attentional control and inhibition; however, these associations were no longer significant after controlling for shared variance with information-processing speed. Findings are consistent with previous research suggesting vocabulary and information-processing speed underlie effective fluency performance to a greater extent than executive functioning. The AFT measures unique variance not accounted for by semantic and letter fluency tasks, and therefore may be used for a variety of research and clinical purposes.

Validation of a brief Multicultural Cognitive Examination (MCE) for evaluation of dementia.

The aims of this study were to present the psychometric properties of a newly designed cognitive screening instrument, the Multicultural Cognitive Examination (MCE), and to compare it with the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) in a multicultural population. The study was a Western European cross-sectional multicenter study. The MCE consists of four components evaluating separate cognitive functions and was constructed by adding measures of memory, verbal fluency, and visuospatial function to the RUDAS to create a scale with 0 to 100 points. A total of 66 patients with dementia and 123 cognitively intact participants were included across six memory clinics; 96 had minority ethnic background, and 93 had majority ethnic background. Moderate to large differences were present between patients with dementia and control participants on all MCE components. The MCE significantly improved diagnostic accuracy compared with using the RUDAS alone, with area under the curves of .918, .984, and .991 for the RUDAS, MCE composite, and demographically corrected composite scores, respectively. Diagnostic accuracy of the MCE did not significantly differ between minority and majority ethnic groups. Across MCE subcomponents, patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia performed significantly poorer on the memory component compared with those with non-AD dementia. The MCE is a brief cross-cultural cognitive screening instrument that expands evaluation of the cognitive functions covered by the RUDAS, does not require any specialized training, and may be useful for classification of mild dementia or dementia subtypes.

Collectivism Is Associated With Greater Neurocognitive Fluency in Older Adults.

Neuropsychological research has been limited in the representation of cultural diversity due to various issues, raising questions regarding the applicability of findings to diverse populations. Nonetheless, culture-dependent differences in fundamental psychological processes have been demonstrated. One of the most basic of these, self-construal (individualism, collectivism), is central to how many other differences are interpreted. Self-construals may have possible consequences on social interactions, emotions, motivation, and cognition. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of self-construal on neurocognitive functions in older adults. A total of 86 community-dwelling older adults 60 years and older were assessed with three common self-report measures of self-construal along individualism and collectivism (IC). A cognitive battery was administered to assess verbal and non-verbal fluency abilities. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to categorize individuals according to IC, and one-way analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), including relevant covariates (e.g., ethnicity, gender, linguistic abilities), were used to compare neurocognitive functions between individualists and collectivists. Collectivists outperformed individualists on left frontally-mediated measures of verbal fluency (action, phonemic) after controlling for relevant covariates, F(1,77) = 6.942, p = 0.010, η2 = 0.061. Groups did not differ on semantic fluency, non-verbal fluency, or attention/working memory (all ps > 0.05). These findings suggest a cognitive advantage in collectivists for verbal processing speed with an additional contribution of left frontal processes involved in lexicosemantic retrieval. Self-construal may provide a meaningful descriptor for diverse samples in neuropsychological research and may help explain other cross-cultural differences.

The role of proactive interference in working memory training and transfer.

Recent work on working memory training has produced conflicting results regarding the degree and generality of transfer to other cognitive processes. However, few studies have investigated possible mechanisms underlying transfer. The current study was designed to test the role of proactive interference in working memory training and transfer. Eighty-six young adults participated in a pretest-posttest design, with ten training sessions in between. In the two working memory training conditions, subjects performed an operation span task, with one condition requiring recall of letters on every trial (operation-letters), whereas the other condition alternated between letters, digits, and words as the to-be-remembered items across trials (operation-mix). These groups were compared to an active-control group (visual-search). Working memory, verbal fluency, and reading comprehension measures were administered in pretest and posttest sessions. All groups significantly increased their performance over the ten training sessions. There was evidence of strategy-specific benefits on transfer, such that transfer to working memory measures was higher for the operation-letters group on tasks specifically involving letters, and no differential transfer to working memory tests without letters, to verbal fluency, or to reading comprehension. The results indicate that proactive interference does not appear to play a causal role in determining transfer from working memory training, and instead a strategy account based on stimulus content provides a more parsimonious explanation for the pattern of training and transfer.

Normative data for eight verbal fluency measures in older Danish adults

ABSTRACTVerbal fluency tests are quickly administered, easy to use, and regularly used in the neuropsychological assessment. The aim of this study was to present regression-based reference data for eight different verbal fluency tests in a Danish sample (aged 60–96 years) to determine the influence of age, gender, and education on test-performances. The results showed that age and education were significantly associated with both categories, lexical and alternating fluency tests, and gender had a significant impact on two tests. All tests were significantly correlated, but there was a much stronger association between tests of the same type (lexical versus category) than between different types of tests indicating that various fluency tasks draw on different cognitive abilities. Specific patterns of impairment can be analyzed using these normative data and may be important in the assessment of dementia spectrum disorders.

The effect of acute exercise on the performance of verbal fluency in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome: a pilot study.

The high prevalence of cognitive dysfunction is well documented in individuals with Down syndrome. However, only a few studies have focused on the effect of exercise on cognitive performance in this population. In particular, verbal fluency has been shown to be relevant to the early onset of Alzheimer's disease in individuals with Down syndrome. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating the relationship between acute exercise and verbal fluency in this population. It was a pre-post design. Twenty-eight participants (aged 14-31) were assigned to high-intensity exercise (i.e. 70-85% of predicted maximum heart rate) (N=8), moderate-intensity exercise (i.e. 50-69% of predicted maximum heart rate) (N=10) or attentional control (N=10) groups. Two exercise groups walked on a treadmill using an incremental walking protocol, and the attentional control group watched a video for 20min. Measures of verbal fluency (i.e. semantic fluency and phonetic fluency) were tested pre-intervention and post-intervention. The result showed a quadric trend between semantic fluency and intensity of exercise. The improvement in cognitive performance on semantic fluency test was observed in the moderate-intensity exercise. However, neither a linear trend nor a quadric trend was seen in phonetic fluency. The result showed an inverted-U relationship between exercise intensity and semantic fluency. A larger sample size, testing time and more reliable psychophysiological measures (e.g. VO2 max and neuroimaging technology), should be considered to explore the underlying mechanisms in this population.

The Humanoid Robot NAO as Trainer in a Memory Program for Elderly People with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Many studies on social interaction have used the humanoid robot NAO. In the present paper, we described our project designed to address the growing unmet need for alternative approaches to slowing the progression of cognitive decline in Mild Cognitive Impairment patients. NAO is the experimental platform used in an ecological setting: a center for the treatment of cognitive disorders and dementia of the Italian health service. This paper describes the study addressed to evaluate the effectiveness of human–robot interaction to reinforce therapeutic behavior and treatments adherence and presents the latest findings of functional tests and users investigation recently conducted. The robot was programmed to implement some tasks from the usual memory-training program protocol. In different training conditions, subjects participated in sessions with the support of NAO or only from the psychologist while the interaction was recorded for subsequent exploration. Data indicated that memory training with NAO resulted in an increase of visual gaze from patients and reinforce of therapeutic behavior reducing, in some cases, depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, significant changes in prose memory and verbal fluency measures were detected. These findings suggest that further research on robotics in ecological settings is necessary to determine the extent to which they can effectively support clinical practice.

Incremental utility of an extended stroop task for identifying subtle differences in cognitive performance among healthy older adults

The Stroop Color and Word Test is a test of processing speed, response inhibition, and executive functioning (EF). This project examined whether extending the Stroop Color-Word trial beyond the standard time limit could more accurately assess performance on EF measures. Cognitively healthy older individuals (n = 198) enrolled in a study of cardiovascular health completed the Stroop as part of a neuropsychological battery. Two scores were computed for the Color-Word trial: the number of items completed within the first 45 seconds (traditional Color-Word score) and the speed of page completion beyond the first 45 seconds (Stroop-Extended score). Criterion measures included the Trail-Making Test Part B (TMT-B), Digit Span Backward, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Short Category Test, and measures of verbal fluency. Results from hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that the extended Stroop score accounted for small but statistically significant variance in TMT-B (additional 2.6%) and Digit Span Backwards (additional 2.6%) beyond the standard Color-Word score. These findings suggest that extending the Stroop Color-Word trial beyond the first 45 seconds provides a limited increase in predictive power within a healthy sample with restricted range of performance. The extended Stroop requires additional examination in heterogeneous samples, including clinical populations, to determine its predictive utility.

Cognitive Performance among Cognitively Healthy Adults Aged 30–100 Years

Background/Aims: To detect cognitive decline in older adults, measures of verbal fluency and verbal memory are widely used. Less is known about performance in these measures in younger persons or according to education level and gender. We investigated cognitive performance according to age, education and gender among cognitively healthy adults aged 30–100 years. Methods: The study population comprised 4,174 cognitively healthy persons participating in the nationally representative Finnish Health 2011 survey. Cognitive assessment included verbal fluency, word list memory, word list recall and word list savings from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease neuropsychological battery. Results: Total variance in the cognitive test performance explained by age, education and gender varied from 12.3 to 31.2%. A decreasing trend in cognitive performance existed in all subtests by advancing age, with differences appearing between 50 and 55 years. Persons with the highest-education level performed best for all measures. For the participants < 55 years, education explained part of the variance, while age and gender did not. Conclusions: When assessing cognition, age and education should be accounted for in more detail in research and clinical practice. Additionally, the cohort effect and its potential impact on the renewal cycle of future normative values for cognitive tests should be considered.

Proceedings #10: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Mediates Improvements in Verbal Fluency for Patients with Primary Progressive Aphasia

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) refers to the syndrome of progressive language loss resulting from neurodegenerative dementias. This study explores the effects of left hemisphere transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on language production deficits observed in the non-fluent/agrammatic and logopenic variants of PPAs. Six subjects participated in a randomized, sham-controlled full-crossover study in which they received 10 sessions of tDCS. Participants performed a battery of clinical language tests prior to receiving either real or sham tDCS, immediately after 10 days of stimulation, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks after stimulation. In the Category Fluency task (a measure of verbal fluency) subjects who received real tDCS showed a significant benefit in performance over time compared to subjects who received sham stimulation. When change from baseline was compared between groups, participants who received real tDCS showed significantly greater improvement than those who received sham tDCS. There was no significant difference between groups on measures of picture naming, understanding of grammar, or semantic processing. TDCS shows a promising potential to ameliorate verbal fluency deficits experienced by PPA patients who suffer from impairment in this domain.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity of the Middle Frontal Gyrus Can Predict Language Lateralization in Patients with Brain Tumors.

A recent study using task-based fMRI demonstrated that the middle frontal gyrus is comparable with Broca's area in its ability to determine language laterality using a measure of verbal fluency. This study investigated whether the middle frontal gyrus can be used as an indicator for language-hemispheric dominance in patients with brain tumors using task-free resting-state fMRI. We hypothesized that no significant difference in language lateralization would occur between the middle frontal gyrus and Broca area and that the middle frontal gyrus can serve as a simple and reliable means of measuring language laterality. Using resting-state fMRI, we compared the middle frontal gyrus with the Broca area in 51 patients with glial neoplasms for voxel activation, the language laterality index, and the effect of tumor grade on the laterality index. The laterality index derived by resting-state fMRI and task-based fMRI was compared in a subset of 40 patients. Voxel activations in the left middle frontal gyrus and left Broca area were positively correlated (r = 0.47, P < .001). Positive correlations were seen between the laterality index of the Broca area and middle frontal gyrus regions (r = 0.56, P < .0005). Twenty-seven of 40 patients (67.5%) showed concordance of the laterality index based on the Broca area using resting-state fMRI and the laterality index based on a language task. Thirty of 40 patients (75%) showed concordance of the laterality index based on the middle frontal gyrus using resting-state fMRI and the laterality index based on a language task. The middle frontal gyrus is comparable with the Broca area in its ability to determine hemispheric dominance for language using resting-state fMRI. Our results suggest the addition of resting-state fMRI of the middle frontal gyrus to the list of noninvasive modalities that could be used in patients with gliomas to evaluate hemispheric dominance of language before tumor resection. In patients who cannot participate in traditional task-based fMRI, resting-state fMRI offers a task-free alternate to presurgically map the eloquent cortex.

Understanding the Cognitive Side Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs: Can Functional Imaging Be Helpful?

Effects of Carbamazepine and Lamotrigine on Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Cognitive Networks Xiao F, Caciagli L, Wandschneider B, Sander JW, Sidhu M, Winston G, Burdett J, Trimmel K, Hill A, Vollmar C, Vos SB, Ourselin S, Thompson PJ, Zhou D, Duncan JS, Koepp MJ. Epilepsia. 2018;59:1362-1371. doi:10.1111/epi.14448Objective: To investigate the effects of sodium channel–blocking antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) language network activations in patients with focal epilepsy. Methods: In a retrospective study, we identified patients who were treated at the time of language fMRI scanning with either carbamazepine (CBZ; n = 42) or lamotrigine (LTG; n = 42), but not another sodium channel–blocking AED. We propensity-matched 42 patients taking levetiracetam (LEV) as “patient-controls” and included further 42 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. After controlling for age, age at onset of epilepsy, gender, and antiepileptic comedications, we compared verbal fluency fMRI activations between groups and out-of-scanner psychometric measures of verbal fluency. Results: Patients on CBZ performed less well on a verbal fluency tests than those taking LTG or LEV. Compared to either LEV-treated patients or controls, patients taking CBZ showed decreased activations in left inferior frontal gyrus and patients on LTG showed abnormal deactivations in frontal and parietal default mode areas. All patient groups showed fewer activations in the putamen bilaterally compared to controls. In a post hoc analysis, out-of-scanner fluency scores correlated positively with left putamen activation. Significance: Our study provides evidence of AED effects on the functional neuroanatomy of language, which might explain subtle language deficits in patients taking otherwise well-tolerated sodium channel–blocking agents. Patients on CBZ showed dysfunctional frontal activation and more pronounced impairment of performance than patients taking LTG, which was associated only with failure to deactivate task-negative networks. As previously shown for working memory, LEV treatment did not affect functional language networks.

Specificity rates for non-clinical, bilingual, Mexican Americans with California Verbal Learning Test3, verbal fluency, and Rey 15-IR performance validity measures

Objective: To measure failure rates among non-clinical, Mexican American, bilinguals on embedded performance validity measures from the California Verbal Learning Test3 and verbal fluency and the stand-alone Rey 15-item test plus recognition (Rey 15-IR) using valid/invalid performance cut scores developed for monolingual, English-speakers.Method: Participants were 60 consecutive recruits, aged between 18 and 75 years, with ≤16 years of education who self-identified as bilingual (confirmed via formal assessment) and chose the language of assessment, Spanish or English, for the performance validity tests.Results: The only performance validity measure studied with a higher failure rate (19%) than that for monolingual, English-speakers (9%) was semantic fluency administered in Spanish.Conclusions: Valid/invalid performance cut scores derived for monolingual English-speakers generated comparable or lower failure rates among Mexican American bilinguals on CVLT3 forced-choice recognition, CVLT3 yes–no recognition hits, letter fluency, semantic fluency in English, and the Rey 15-IR.

Identifying early diffusion imaging biomarkers of regional white matter injury as indicators of executive function decline following brain radiotherapy: A prospective clinical trial in primary brain tumor patients

Background and purposeExecutive function (EF) decline is common after brain radiation therapy (RT), yet the etiology is unclear. We analyzed the association between longitudinal changes in frontal lobe white matter microstructure and decline in EF following RT in brain tumor patients on a prospective clinical trial. Materials and methodsDiffusion tensor imaging was obtained on 22 patients with brain tumors prior to RT, as well as 3- and 6-months post-RT, in a prospective, observational trial. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), and axial diffusivity (AD) were calculated within the superficial white matter (SWM) of the anterior cingulate (AC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Measures of cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and verbal set-shifting were obtained pre- and post-RT. Reliable change indices were calculated to determine significant baseline to 6-month EF changes. ResultsDecreases in FA and increases in MD were observed in the caudal AC (CAC) at 3-months post-RT. CAC changes were characterized by increased RD bilaterally. From baseline to 6-months post-RT, decreased FA and increased MD and RD of the CAC was associated with decline in verbal set-shifting ability, whereas increased MD in the CAC was associated with a decline in cognitive flexibility. ConclusionWhite matter underlying the AC may be particularly vulnerable to radiation effects. Early microstructural loss within AC SWM represents an important biomarker for EF decline, and dose reduction in this region may represent a possibility for cognitive preservation for patients receiving radiotherapy.

Depression diagnoses, but not individual differences in depression symptoms, are associated with reduced autobiographical memory specificity.

Difficulties recalling specific events from one's autobiographical past have been associated with a range of emotional disorders. We present the first examination of whether diagnoses of depression or individual differences in depression severity explain the most variance in autobiographical memory specificity. We also examine the contribution of other key cognitive factors associated with reduced memory specificity - rumination and verbal fluency - to these effects. Participants with (n=21) and without (n=25) major depressive disorder completed self-report measures of depression severity (Beck Depression Inventory version II; BDI-II) and ruminative tendency (Ruminative Response Scale), a measure of verbal fluency, and the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) to assess memory specificity. People diagnosed with depression recalled significantly fewer specific memories in the AMT relative to healthy controls. In a linear regression, diagnostic status explained a significant amount of unique variance in specificity whereas BDI-II scores did not. Diagnostic group differences in verbal fluency also explained a significant amount of variance in specificity. Our findings extend our understanding of the mechanisms involved in reduced memory specificity but future research must explore the causal contribution of weak executive functioning to reduced memory specificity. Diagnoses of depression were associated with problems recalling specific events from one's past. Problems with memory specificity amongst depressed people were associated with executive functioning difficulties. Problems with specificity were not associated with individual differences in depression severity or ruminative tendencies.

Valence-related impairments in the retrieval of specific autobiographical memories amongst patients with schizophrenia.

People with schizophrenia have difficulty recalling specific autobiographical events from their past. However, the nature of this difficulty (e.g., whether these problems are only for memories that are negative or positive) and the mechanisms associated with it remain poorly understood. The present investigation asked patients with schizophrenia (n=91) and healthy controls (n=109) to recall memories related to several positive and negative cue words. Participants also completed self-report measures of rumination and depressive symptoms and a measure of verbal fluency to assess executive functioning. Participants' memories were coded for specificity (whether or not they referred to a specific event lasting <24hr) and valence (positive vs. negative). Patients recalled fewer specific memories than controls and they showed particular difficulty recalling specific negative memories cued by negative words. For healthy controls, impoverished verbal fluency was associated with recall of fewer specific memories and particularly recall of fewer positive specific memories. These variables were unrelated to specificity amongst patients. Rumination was not associated with specificity in either group. These findings are discussed with reference to other mechanisms that might contribute towards reduced specificity in schizophrenia, such as the tendency to avoid negative affect, and the implications of this for interventions for schizophrenia and memory specificity problems. The experience of schizophrenia is associated with problems recalling specific events from one's past. In particular, patients have difficulty recalling specific negative memories from their past. These memory problems are independent of executive functioning difficulties, ruminative tendencies, and also depression symptoms. Interventions for memory problems in schizophrenia must target the difficulty people have in recalling specific negative events.

Expectations may influence the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation

Growing interest surrounds transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) as a safe and inexpensive method for improving cognitive functions and mood. Nevertheless, tDCS studies rarely examine psychological factors such as expectations of outcomes, which may influence tDCS responsiveness through placebo-like effects. Here we sought to evaluate the potential influence of expectations on tDCS intervention outcomes. We assessed expectations of tDCS outcomes in 88 healthy young adults on three occasions: i) at baseline; ii) after reading information implying either high or low effectiveness of stimulation; and iii) after a single-session of sham-controlled anodal tDCS applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, during working memory (WM) training. Participants were largely uncertain about the effectiveness of stimulation in improving cognitive function at baseline. High or low expectation priming using simple positive or cautionary messages significantly increased or decreased expectation ratings, respectively, but ratings significantly decreased following stimulation in all groups. We found greater improvement in participants who received high compared to low expectation priming. Participants who received active stimulation and low expectation priming exhibited the lowest performance, suggesting that expectation priming and stimulation may have interacted. We did not find a significant effect of baseline expectations, belief of group assignment, or individual characteristics on measures of WM and verbal fluency. However, controlling for baseline expectations revealed greater post-intervention improvement on the executive function measures in participants who received high (compared to low) expectation priming. People randomly assigned to receive high expectation priming reported having a more pleasant experience overall, including greater satisfaction. Our findings suggest that expectations of outcomes should be taken into account in tDCS-based experimental studies and clinical trials.

B - 03The Impact of Pregnancy Problems on Measures of Verbal Fluency in Children Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: An Empirical Study

B - 03The Impact of Pregnancy Problems on Measures of Verbal Fluency in Children Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: An Empirical Study

Association of MRI Measurements with Cognitive Outcomes After STN‐DBS in Parkinson's Disease

Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS) is an effective treatment for improving the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). Overall, cognitive function remains stable after STN-DBS in most patients. However, cognitive decline, specifically in the verbal fluency domain, is seen in a subset of STN-DBS patients. Currently, predictors of cognitive decline in PD patients treated with STN-DBS are not well known. Thus, identification of presurgical predictors might provide an important clinical tool for better risk-to-benefit assessment. This study explores whether whole brain white matter lesion (WML) volume, or hippocampal and forebrain volumes, measured quantitatively on MRI, are associated with cognitive changes following STN-DBS in PD patients. We conducted a retrospective study using presurgical, and ≥ 6-month postsurgical neuropsychological (NP) evaluation scores from 43 PD patients with STN-DBS. Mean pre/post NP test scores for measures of executive function, attention, verbal fluency, memory, and visuospatial function were analyzed and correlated with WML volume, and brain volumetric data. Although cognitive measures of verbal fluency, executive function, attention, memory, and visuospatial function showed declines following STN-DBS, we observed limited evidence that white matter lesion burden or cortical atrophy contributed to cognitive change following STN-DBS. These results suggest that post-STN-DBS cognitive changes may be unrelated to presurgical WML burden and presence of cortical atrophy.

Cognitive Performance in Non-Psychotic Non-Suicidal Unipolar Depressed Patients

Background: Cognitive impairment is central in depression and executive dysfunctions in patients with depression are frequent. However, little attention has been paid to the specificities of executive changes in patients with unipolar depression, though these modifications may have serious implications for psychosocial functions and treatment of these patients.Goals: To compare neuropsychological performance, regarding executive functions, of two adult groups: non-psychotic non-suicide attempters with unipolar depression and healthy individuals.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with data collected in an outpatient clinic of mental health service of a general hospital. Wecompared a group of non-psychotic non-suicidal unipolar depressed patients to a group of individuals without depression. Depressed subjects were controlled for prior suicidal attempts, and their neuropsychological profile was assessed using a range of measures of attention, verbal fluency, memory, psychomotor speed, and executive functioning (planning, decision making, set shifting, response inhibition, and inhibitory control).Results: The group with depression (n=23) was significantly outperformed by the group of healthy individuals (n=23) in all measures. Also, differences in the executive functions of planning, decision making, set shifting, and inhibitory control were confirmed. We were unable to identify differences between non-suicidal individuals with depression and individuals without depression in terms of response inhibition, as has been the case in previous studies with samples with suicidal unipolar depressive patients.Discussion: These results reinforce the hypothesis that there are specific alterations in patients with depression and highlight the need to develop specific cognitive rehabilitation programs for this population.