Semantic Fluency Task Research Articles

Different Markers of Semantic–Lexical Impairment Allow One to Obtain Different Information on the Conversion from MCI to AD: A Narrative Review of an Ongoing Research Program

Background: In this narrative review, we have surveyed results obtained from a research program dealing with the role of semantic memory disorders as a predictor of progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Objectives: In this research program, we have taken into account many different putative markers, provided of a different complexity in the study of the semantic network. These markers ranged from the number of words produced on a semantic fluency task to the following: (a) the discrepancy between scores obtained on semantic vs. phonemic word fluency tests; (b) the presence, at the single-word level, of features (such as a loss of low typical words on a category verbal fluency task) typical of a degraded semantic system; or (c) the presence of more complex phenomena (such as the semantic distance between consecutively produced word pairs) concerning the organization of the semantic network. In the present review, all these studies have been presented, providing separate subsections for (a) methods, (b) results, and (c) a short discussion. Some tentative general conclusions have been drawn at the end of the review. We found that at baseline all these markers are impaired in MCI patients who will later convert to AD, but also that they do not necessarily show a linear worsening during the progression to AD and allow one to make different predictions about the time of development of AD. Our conclusions were that, rather than searching for the best marker of conversion, we should use a range of different markers allowing us to obtain the information most appropriate to the goal of our investigation.

The fluency-based semantic network of LLMs differs from humans

Modern Large Language Models (LLMs) exhibit complexity and granularity similar to humans in the field of natural language processing, challenging the boundaries between humans and machines in language understanding and creativity. However, whether the semantic network of LLMs is similar to humans is still unclear. We examined the representative closed-source LLMs, GPT-3.5-Turbo and GPT-4, with open-source LLMs, LLaMA-2-70B, LLaMA-3-8B, LLaMA-3-70B using semantic fluency tasks widely used to study the structure of semantic networks in humans. To enhance the comparability of semantic networks between humans and LLMs, we innovatively employed role-playing to generate multiple agents, which is equivalent to recruiting multiple LLM participants. The results indicate that the semantic network of LLMs has poorer interconnectivity, local association organization, and flexibility compared to humans, which suggests that LLMs have lower search efficiency and more rigid thinking in the semantic space and may further affect their performance in creative writing and reasoning.

Apples, tomatoes, and health: comparison of structural characteristics of the L1 and L2 mental lexicons

Abstract The present study delves into the structure and lexical organization of L1 and L2 mental lexicons. Indirect access to the mental lexicon is provided by semantic fluency tasks, which inform researchers about how the words are organized in the mental lexicon and retrieved when necessary. Here, two groups of participants were asked to retrieve as many words of the category fruits and vegetables as possible in two minutes. The first group is made up of native speakers of Spanish who responded in Spanish L1, whereas the second group is made up of native speakers of Greek who are learning Spanish foreign language (SFL) who responded first in Spanish FL and later in Greek L1. The three sets of responses were scrutinized and compared for similarities and differences. Results point to a retrieval mechanism based on L1-mediated access for SFL learners and slightly different structures of the mental lexicon. Even in very advanced learners, lexical organization and word retrieval in the FL resembles L1 organization.

Impact of Disciplinary Variations on Second Language Mental Lexicon

This study investigates how academic disciplines impact second language (L2) lexical competencies. Prior L2 research has often overlooked the broader effects of disciplinary backgrounds on lexical development. To address this gap, this study utilized lexical decision, memory, and semantic fluency tasks to examine lexicon recognition, memory, and storage processes among L2 Chinese learners from various academic fields. The study participants comprised 16 students from the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) disciplines and 11 from the Science and Engineering (S&E) disciplines, all having passed HSK level 4. The tasks were conducted using E-Prime 2.0. The findings revealed distinct cognitive strategies and thinking patterns among the participants from different disciplines . These strategies and patterns affected lexical task performance in terms of accuracy and response times. Although lexical memory exhibited no significant variation among the groups, discipline-specific tendencies were observed in the formation of semantic networks. Learners from S&E disciplines preferred mastering field-relevant Chinese terminology, whereas HSS learners tended to acquire words outside their specific disciplines. This observation highlights how learners’ disciplinary backgrounds influence their vocabulary acquisition and the organization of semantic networks in L2.

Characteristics of Clustering and Switching in Verbal Fluency in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the performance on a verbal fluency task, clustering and switching characteristics, and proportion by error type between healthy elderly, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Dementia of Alzheimer’s Type (DAT) group. Methods: Thirty healthy elderly, 30 MCI and 29 DAT individuals were asked to produce words in the category of ‘supermarket items’ for semantic fluency and ‘ㄱ’, ‘ㅇ’, and ‘ㅅ’ Korean letter categories for phonemic fluency with one minute allotted per category. Results: First, the number of correct responses in the verbal fluency task was significantly different between groups, with post hoc analyses showing significant differences between the healthy elderly and DAT groups and between the MCI and DAT groups. Second, the mean cluster size was not significant between groups in the semantic fluency task. However, it was significant between the healthy elderly and DAT groups, and between MCI and DAT groups in the phonemic fluency task. Third, the number of switches was significant between the healthy elderly and DAT elderly. Finally, the three groups had the highest proportion of perseverative errors in the semantic fluency task and the highest proportion of other errors in the phonemic fluency task. Conclusion: This study has clinical significance in that it examined the number of correct responses and characteristics of clustering and switching on verbal fluency tasks in the healthy elderly, MCI and DAT groups.

A - 121 A Comparison of Phonemic and Semantic Fluency among Individuals with Vascular Encephalopathy (VaE), Alzheimer’s Disease (ad), and Healthy Controls (HC)

Abstract Objective To examine the performance of individuals with vascular encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and healthy controls on phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. Method Participants (N = 485) were categorized based on their diagnosis: VAE (n = 129, Mage = 76, 54.26% male); ad (n = 191, Mage = 75.67, 31.41% male); and HC (n = 165, Mage = 69, 26.67% male). Quade ANCOVAs were employed to probe differences in phonemic fluency and semantic fluency across the three groups while accounting for age and education. Results Statistically significant findings were observed for the overall model for phonemic and semantic fluency, indicating strong relationships between diagnosis and task performance (Phonemic: F(4, 480) = 115.017, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.489; Semantic F(4, 480) = 280.779, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.701). A contrast analysis revealed significant differences when comparing ad to HC [Phonemic: -165.300 (SE = 12.512, t = −13.21, p < 0.001); Semantic −238.003 (SE = 9.583; t = −24.83, p < 0.001)]. A similar pattern emerged when comparing the VAE and HC groups [Phonemic: -126.471 (SE = 13.833, t = −9.14, p < 0.001); Semantic −181.446 (SE = 10.595, t = −17.12, p < 0.001)]. Conclusion Cognitive impairment type significantly influenced phonemic and semantic fluency scores, even after adjusting for age and education. ad individuals showed the lowest performance in both tasks compared to VaE individuals, who in turn performed worse than HCs. Assessing differences in phonemic and semantic fluency between disease groups is crucial for differential diagnosis and understanding specific cognitive deficits, which can guide personalized treatment strategies. These evaluations help monitor disease progression and contribute to research that may lead to improved therapeutic approaches.

The Contributions of the Cerebellar Peduncles and the Frontal Aslant Tract in Mediating Speech Fluency.

Fluent speech production is a complex task that spans multiple processes, from conceptual framing and lexical access, through phonological encoding, to articulatory control. For the most part, imaging studies portraying the neural correlates of speech fluency tend to examine clinical populations sustaining speech impairments and focus on either lexical access or articulatory control, but not both. Here, we evaluated the contribution of the cerebellar peduncles to speech fluency by measuring the different components of the process in a sample of 45 neurotypical adults. Participants underwent an unstructured interview to assess their natural speaking rate and articulation rate, and completed timed semantic and phonemic fluency tasks to assess their verbal fluency. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging with probabilistic tractography was used to segment the bilateral cerebellar peduncles (CPs) and frontal aslant tract (FAT), previously associated with speech production in clinical populations. Our results demonstrate distinct patterns of white matter associations with different fluency components. Specifically, verbal fluency is associated with the right superior CP, whereas speaking rate is associated with the right middle CP and bilateral FAT. No association is found with articulation rate in these pathways, in contrast to previous findings in persons who stutter. Our findings support the contribution of the cerebellum to aspects of speech production that go beyond articulatory control, such as lexical access, pragmatic or syntactic generation. Further, we demonstrate that distinct cerebellar pathways dissociate different components of speech fluency in neurotypical speakers.

EVALUATION OF INDONESIAN VERSION OF THE EMOTION WORD FLUENCY TEST

A cognitive assessment is not complete without an inspection of a client’s emotional status. The Emotion Word Fluency Test (EWFT) is a newly developed instrument for Indonesia. It provides similar assessment to other semantic word fluency tasks, linguistic and memory skills, and also a client’s current emotional standing and previously experienced emotions. Our study aims to present the newly-developed EWFT and its scoring system, and the psychometric properties of the test including its test-retest reliability and construct validity, as well as the reliability of the scoring system. Healthy participants with no history of brain-related diseases (n = 98), varying in age and education, were recruited; an additional group (n = 30) was included in the test-retest reliability study. The construct validity was evaluated with a phonemic verbal fluency test (pVFT). The EWFT was correlated (.51-.56) with the pVFT, and the three subscales of the pVFT correlated highly (.75-.80), indicating that the EWFT and pVFT share a common construct, but are also different. The scoring system showed excellent reliability (.86 for the number of correct generated words), and the test-retest reliability for the number of correct words was moderate (.54). Participants produced more negative than positive emotion words, t(29) = 6.33, p < .05. The correlation between the number of positive and negative emotion words was zero. Age affected the performance in both EWFT, F(3, 80) = 3.10, p < .05; and pVFT F(3, 80) = 2.47, p < .05; as was internationally reported. The EWFT scoring system is concluded reliable and the test has moderate reliability.

Cognitive Control Performance as Measured by Clustering and Switching in Nepali – English Bilingual Verbal Fluency Task

Verbal fluency task is a simple yet powerful neuropsychological tool for measuring linguistic and cognitive processing. In this research article we report the clustering and switching, as identified by Troyer and colleagues (1997), as cognitive control measured through semantic and phonetic verbal fluency task. We tested 25 Nepali (L1) - English (L2) bilingual adults with mean age of 22 years on f, a, s for English phonemic fluency, s, k, d for Nepali phonetic fluency and animals, cloths, vegetables, fruits and flowers for semantic fluency in both Nepali and English. The participants performed better in L2 phonetic fluency compared to L1 phonetic fluency, whereas, there was mixed results in semantic output in both the languages. They exhibited more clusters in phonetic fluency compared to semantic fluency in both L1 and L2 which indicates participants needed to disengage from the previous strategy or subcategory and move on to the next strategy or subcategory, thus, reflecting more cognitive demand imposed by the phonetic fluency compared to semantic fluency. This is the first such study with Nepali – English bilinguals. This study may further be extended to include more diversified population in terms of age, language family, typicality and ethnicity as independent variables.

Using semantic verbal fluency to estimate the relative and absolute vocabulary size of bilinguals: An exploratory study of children and adolescents

IntroductionThe full assessment of bilingual children often involves at least one language for which formal vocabulary tests are lacking and which the examiner does not speak. We examined, in a sample of children with typical development (TD), whether a semantic verbal fluency task, typically used in research as a measure of executive function, could be used in the place of a formal vocabulary test to estimate vocabulary knowledge when formal tests are not available. Method113 TD monolingual French speakers and TD bilinguals and with varying degrees of exposure to French, age 6 to 17 years, completed tests of vocabulary knowledge and semantic verbal fluency. A subset of 64 participants spoke French and English and were tested in both languages. Verbal fluency measures calculated using a traditional method which uses specific rules for superordinate categories and for animals of different sex and age and a simplified scoring method which simply counts all words produced, included the total number of words produced in each language, Total Vocabulary and Conceptual Vocabulary measures combining both languages, as well as analyses of lexical composition and word frequency within the study sample. ResultsLinear regressions revealed that the number of words produced predicted vocabulary size in a language-specific way, with slightly stronger predictions made by the simplified scoring method. As expected, bilinguals produced more words and more unique words in their language of greater exposure, while different exposure groups were equivalent in measures combining both languages, including their Total vocabulary and Conceptual vocabulary. Producing unusual words (infrequently produced in the study sample) indicated higher vocabulary scores. ConclusionsThis study supports the use of the verbal fluency task as a quick and simple tool to obtain a rough estimate of vocabulary size in TD monolinguals and bilinguals. This tool shows promise as well in clinical work with other populations, subject to further verification.

Audiovisual perception of interrupted speech by nonnative listeners.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of visual cues in audiovisual perception of interrupted speech by nonnative English listeners and to identify the role of working memory, long-term memory retrieval, and vocabulary knowledge in audiovisual perception by nonnative listeners. The participants included 31 Mandarin-speaking English learners between 19 and 41 years of age. The perceptual stimuli were noise-filled periodically interrupted AzBio and QuickSIN sentences with or without visual cues that showed a male speaker uttering the sentences. In addition to sentence recognition, the listeners completed a semantic fluency task, verbal (operation span) and visuospatial (symmetry span) working memory tasks, and two vocabulary knowledge tests (Vocabulary Level Test and Lexical Test for Advanced Learners of English). The results revealed significantly better speech recognition in the audio-visual condition than the audio-only condition, but the magnitude of visual benefit was substantially attenuated for sentences that had limited semantic context. The listeners' vocabulary size in English played a key role in the restoration of missing speech information and audiovisual integration in the perception of interrupted speech. Meanwhile, the listeners' verbal working memory capacity played an important role in audiovisual integration especially for the difficult stimuli with limited semantic context.

Psycholinguistics Study on the Interplay of Bilingualism on Selected Cognitive Functions Based on Threshold Hypotheses among Saudi International School Students

This study investigates the threshold hypothesis in Saudi international school students. While this hypothesis has been extensively researched in the West, its application in Arabic-speaking regions, particularly Saudi Arabia, remains unexplored. This paper compares the executive function (metalinguistic awareness, inhibitory control, attentional control, and working memory) differences between the three levels of bilinguals (balanced, dominant, and semi) in male secondary school students in Saudi Arabia. Participants took language tests (TOEFL for English, GCSE for Arabic) and four cognitive tasks (grammatical judgment task, Stroop Task, semantic and phonemic fluency task, and Backward-digit-recall task). A quantitative causal-comparative analysis concluded that there was no significant difference between the performance of balanced, dominant, and semi-bilinguals on executive function tasks, except for the phonemic task. However, the study showed that semi-bilinguals performed poorly in all cognitive tasks. Thus, balanced and dominant bilinguals perform equally in inhibitory control, mental flexibility, and metalinguistic and semantic tasks.

Trilingual parallel processing: Do the dominant languages grab all the attention?

Abstract Twenty-five L1 Nepali speaking participants living in Trondheim, Norway who spoke English as L2 and Norwegian as L3 (late adult learners) participated in this study. Participants’ L2 proficiency was established as advanced in LexTALE. We administered language comprehension and production tasks in a trilingual design. In a mouse tracking trilingual parallel activation experiment, participants performed a language comprehension task in which they listened to the spoken word in their L1, L2 and L3 and clicked on the matching target picture. Mouse trajectories of their response pattern were recorded and analyzed. The language production task included a phonological and a semantic verbal fluency task (VFT), which also served as an executive control task. VFT showed their dominance in L1 and L2 compared to L3. This study contributes novel knowledge on trilingual parallel activation and suggests that in the presence of a non-dominant L3, a dominant L1 and a dominant L2 are processed faster than the non-dominant language in phonologically competing conditions.

Enhancement of phonemic verbal fluency in multilingual young adults by transcranial random noise stimulation

Several studies have analyzed the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on verbal fluency tasks in non-clinical populations. Nevertheless, the reported effects on verbal fluency are inconsistent. In addition, the effect of other techniques such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) on verbal fluency enhancement has yet to be studied in healthy multilingual populations. This study aims to explore the effects of tRNS on verbal fluency in healthy multilingual individuals. Fifty healthy multilingual (Spanish, English and Basque) adults were randomly assigned to a tRNS or sham group. Electrodes were placed on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus. All participants performed phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks before, during (online assessment) and immediately after (offline assessment) stimulation in three different languages. The results showed significantly better performance by participants who received tRNS in the phonemic verbal fluency tasks in Spanish (in the online and offline assessment) and English (in the offline assessment). No differences between conditions were found in Basque nor semantic verbal fluency. These findings suggests that tRNS on the left prefrontal cortex could help improve phonemic, yet not semantic, fluency in healthy multilingual adults.

Transdiagnostic Analysis of Verbal Fluency across Autism Spectrum Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Neurotypical Healthy Control Groups

IntroductionVerbal fluency, a cognitive function that reflects executive functions and the rapid retrieval of pertinent information from memory, has yielded inconsistent findings in previous research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however in schizophrenia (SCH) semantic fluency exhibits a more pronounced impairment compared to letter fluency.ObjectivesIn this study we aim to comprehensively investigate verbal fluency in ASD, SCH, and neurotypical healthy control individuals (NTP). The primary objective is to investigate disparities in novel response generation, specifically between the ASD, SCH and NTP groups, using phonemic and semantic fluency tasks. Three central inquiries guide our research: (1) whether differences between groups (ASD, SCH, and NTP) can be identified in word productivity, clustering, errors, and perseverations; (2) whether participants with ASD and SCH exhibit different word production with elevated imageability and concreteness values; and (3) if individuals with ASD and schizophrenia demonstrate reduced productivity during the earlier phases of fluency tasks.MethodsForty participants with ASD (12 female, 24 male, 4 other, mean age: 30.5), 39 with SCH (10 female, 28 male, 1 other, mean age: 34.7) and 41 NTP (13 female, 28 male, mean age: 31.0) were recruited from the outpatient units of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Semmelweis University. Participants were requested to list as many words as they could on two phonemic and two semantic category conditions. Audio recordings were later transcribed. To assess concreteness and imageability, we employed a seven-point scale and recruited independent external raters to evaluate a total of 1481 words.ResultsPreliminary results indicate that the three study groups did not differ significantly in phonemic fluency (F(2, 119)= 0.983, p=0.377), during either time period. However, a significant difference was observed in semantic fluency (F(2, 119)= 6.531, p=0.002). Post-hoc tests (Tukey corrected) revealed that this difference stemmed from impaired performance in the SCH group. Participants with schizophrenia (SCH) exhibited reduced semantic word productivity compared to both neurotypical (NTP) individuals and participants with ASD (Figure 1). However, there were no significant differences between participants with ASD and NTP individuals.Image:ConclusionsIn conclusion, our study investigated the characteristics of verbal fluency in a transdiagnostic approach. While phonemic fluency did not reveal significant differences among the three groups, our analysis of semantic fluency unveiled a distinction. Specifically, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited impaired semantic word productivity. Our study highlights the complex nature of verbal fluency impairments in different conditions and the importance of considering more nuanced methods when assessing cognitive functions.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

성별 및 연령이 구어유창성과 작업기억 수행력에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study is to examine how gender and aging affect verbal fluency performance depending on the task types and how their performance is associated with working memory capacity in cognitively healthy Korean adults. A total of 120 normal adults (60 males and 60 females) residing in Korea, matched for age and education, were categorized into three age groups: younger (20-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years), and older adults (60-79 years). Verbal fluency was assessed using semantic and verb fluency tasks. Working memory was evaluated through digit span tasks. Significant gender-related differences were found in verbal fluency tasks, with females consistently outperforming males in all tasks, particularly semantic fluency. Moreover, a noticeable decline in performance on verbal fluency tasks is observed among the different age groups, with young adults displaying the highest performance, followed by middle-aged and older adults. Remarkably, the interplay between task type and gender emphasizes that females excel in semantic fluency across all age groups. In younger and older groups, the fluency task that best distinguishes gender was the verb fluency task, and a significant correlation was observed between working memory and all verbal fluency tasks in male and female groups. These findings suggest that males may face challenges in specific verbal fluency tasks compared to females, potentially influenced by various factors and complex interactions.

Atypical semantic cognition in schizotypal personality disorder and borderline personality disorder

ABSTRACT Increased schizotypal traits have previously been associated with atypical semantic cognition in community samples. However, no study has yet examined whether adults diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) display atypical semantic fluency and memory. We hypothesized that 24 adults diagnosed with SPD would name more idiosyncratic words on the semantic fluency task and show decreased semantic recall for animal and fruit category words compared with 29 participants with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and a community sample of 96 age-matched controls. We examined whether atypical semantic cognition was specifically associated with disorganized and eccentric speech and thinking, or more broadly with pathological personality traits and personality functioning. Our main hypothesis was confirmed, as the SPD participants named more idiosyncratic words and recalled fewer semantically related words compared with controls. Surprisingly, participants with BPD likewise named more atypical words compared with controls. More idiosyncratic semantic fluency was associated with more eccentric speech and thinking. Increased idiosyncratic semantic fluency and reduced semantic recall were both coupled to increased detachment and lowered personality functioning, while reduced semantic recall further was related to increased interpersonal problems. Our findings suggest that persons with SPD, and to a lesser degree BPD, show atypical semantic cognition, which is associated with eccentric speech and thinking, and more broadly with impaired personality function, social withdrawal, and emotional flatness. The idiosyncratic semantic cognition may worsen difficulties with social reciprocity seen in SPD and BPD.

Performance of northeastern children from public schools on phonological and semantic verbal fluency tasks

Performance of northeastern children from public schools on phonological and semantic verbal fluency tasks

Symptoms of ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder Interactively Predict Children’s Verbal Fluency

Objective: Verbal fluency, the capacity to generate words from a designated category, predicts myriad cognitive and life outcomes. The study investigated verbal fluency in children with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and comorbid ADHD and ASD, to understand how ADHD- and ASD-related symptoms individually and jointly predict verbal fluency, and the underlying linguistic and cognitive substrates. Method: Thirty-three school-aged children with ADHD, 27 with ASD, 25 with comorbid ADHD and ASD, and 39 with typical development, were assessed for ADHD and ASD symptoms and completed a semantic verbal fluency task. Results: Findings indicated that ADHD and ASD symptoms, especially ADHD hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms and language-related ASD symptoms, interactively predicted verbal fluency across diagnostic groups. Conclusion: The study implicated the potential cognitive and linguistic mechanisms underlying verbal fluency differences in ADHD and/or ASD, and clinical practices on enhancing verbal fluency in these clinical groups.

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) and functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) in healthy elderly and patients with MCI: modulation of age-related changes in word fluency and language lateralization.

Introduction: In addition to age-related changes in language, hemispheric lateralization of language functions steadily declines with age. Also, performance on word fluency tasks declines and is sensitive to the expression of dementia-related changes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of anodal tDCS combined with a word fluency training on language lateralization and word fluency performance in healthy elderly subjects and in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: The effect of anodal tDCS over the left inferio frontal gyrus (IFG) was measured in a group of healthy elderly up to the age of 67years (YG, Ø = 63.9 ± 3.02), a group of healthy elderly aged 68years and older (OG, Ø = 78.1, ± 4.85), and a group of patients with MCI (Ø = 81.18, ± 7.35) by comparing performance in phonological and semantic word fluency tasks before and after 3days of tDCS. Half of the experimental participants received sham stimulation. In addition, language lateralization was determined using a lateralization index (LI) measured with functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) before and after the stimulation period. Results: Anodal tDCS was associated with significantly higher scores in phonological but not semantic word fluency in both YG and OG. In MCI patients, no difference was measured between the tDCS and sham groups in either word fluency task. fTCD showed significantly increased left lateralization in all three groups after the training phase. However, this effect was independent of tDCS and the degree of lateralization could not be predicted by word fluency performance in any of the groups. Discussion: Phonological word fluency can be increased with atDCS in healthy elderly people by stimulating the IFG in a 3-day training. When cognitive decline has reached a certain stage, as is the case with MCI, this paradigm does not seem to be effective enough.