Verbal Fluency Task Research Articles

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.

The latent structure of the Delis-Kaplan system for autism.

A core feature of autism is deficits in executive functioning (EF), including difficulty with planning, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Despite a growing need for evidence-based assessments of EF for autism populations, statistical models of many commonly used measures of EF, including the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), have not been investigated for a sample of autistic participants. The purpose of this study was to address a gap in the literature regarding the latent structure of the D-KEFS in a sample of autistic individuals. The D-KEFS is one of the most widely used clinical assessments of executive function, but its factor structure has not been examined in a sample of autistic participants. Reliability analyses were performed for sample subgroups based on participants' clinical and demographic characteristics, including IQ, autism severity, age, and race/ethnicity. Verbal Fluency (VF) was found to consistently decrease or not affect the overall reliability score. Additionally, one- and two-factor structure models were tested for the D-KEFS with a sample of autistic participants. The one-factor model was not found to be a good fit for the data. However, the two-factor model, with Cognitive Flexibility and Abstraction latent factors, was found to fit the data relatively well. This two-factor model was reexamined excluding the VF observed variable, resulting in a better overall model fit. Communication deficits are a common feature of autism, which explains why the VF task, that requires participants to produce novel words, may not be an adequate measure of executive function for autism populations.

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.

Characterization of Speech and Language Deficits in the Postanesthesia Care Unit: A Novel, Qualitative Cognitive Assessment

BACKGROUND: Assessing recovery after general anesthesia is complicated because patients must be sufficiently arousable to pay attention to the verbal instructions probing cognitive function. All delirium screens that have been used in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) rely heavily on a patient’s ability to process language information and respond appropriately. However, postanesthesia effects on speech-language functions have not been specifically evaluated. Here we present a novel, qualitative PACU evaluation for cognitive domains critical for speech-language functions, and we compare this assessment against a multidomain neurocognitive examination: Telephonic Montreal Cognitive Assessment (t-MoCA). This may be used to identify trajectories of neurocognitive recovery after surgery with general anesthesia and provide neuroanatomic correlates for specific deficits. METHODS: We investigated 48 patients undergoing general anesthesia for noncardiac and nonneurologic elective surgeries. Preoperatively, participants were administered our PACU speech-language assessment (PACU-SLA) and t-MoCA. Both assessments were again administered postoperatively in the PACU. Different versions of PACU-SLA were administered pre- versus postoperatively. Twenty-three participants randomly received the same t-MoCA versions (group AA), and 25 participants received different versions (group AB), pre- versus postoperatively. Assessments were administered ≥30 minutes after PACU arrival, and before PACU discharge. Statistical analysis was performed using Wilcoxon-signed-rank tests for nonnormally distributed paired data, analysis of covariance for assessing the impact of group (AA versus AB) and preoperative scores on postoperative scores, and χ2 tests for unpaired categorical data (P < .05 indicating significance). RESULTS: After adjusting for preoperative scores, the postoperative t-MoCA scores of group AB were significantly lower than group AA (F[1–46] = 21.7, P < .001). Similarly, the t-MoCA scores of episodic-memory (delayed-recall) decreased in group AB (F[1–46] = 48.6, P < .001). For PACU-SLA, there were no postoperative changes in auditory-comprehension and object-naming scores, but a decrease was observed in (1) scores of a 9-point narrative-production task of expressive-fluency (n = 48; median [25th–75th]; preoperative: 9[9–9], postoperative: 7[7–8], P < .001), and (2) total words generated in 2 30-second tasks of verbal-fluency (n = 48; median[25th–75th]: preoperative: 23[12.5–33.5], postoperative: 16.5[9.5–26.5], P < .001). Scores on a 4-point sentence-repetition task were also noted to decrease postoperatively (n = 48; median[25th–75th]; preoperative: 4[3–4], postoperative: 4[3–4], P = .04). When grouping participants by preoperative cognitive status (pMCI, n = 9; preoperative normal, n = 39), both groups showed postoperative changes in verbal-fluency (F[1–46] = 6.97, P = .01) and narrative-production scores (F[1–46] = 5.51, P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: The PACU-SLA revealed lower fluency (hypophonia) with relatively intact comprehension, naming, and repetition, during recovery from general anesthesia. These deficits share features with transcortical motor aphasia.

Characterization of verbal fluency in young and older adults

Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are widely used in the neuropsychological assessment of older adults, however there is a lack of Brazilian studies that compare VF between age groups using tasks of different modalities. The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of healthy young and older adults in different VF tasks (FAS, animals, fruits, actions and switching), analyzing in a complementary way the use of clustering and switching. The sample consisted of 80 adults divided into two age groups (20-40; over 60 years old) and years of education for the second group (basic education; higher education). Instruments were applied to characterize the sample and five VF tasks. Demographic and clinical variables and performance on VF tasks were analyzed using the t test for independent samples. Results indicated a statistically significant difference between age groups in performance on VF tasks. In the elderly group, there was better performance in the phonological, action and switching tasks in those participants with a higher educational level. It is concluded that VF tasks are sensitive to the expected decline in cognitive-executive functions due to the typical aging process, as well as the influence of education, particularly in tasks that require more cognitive effort.

Differential Cognitive Effects of Unilateral Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease.

The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive effects of unilateral directional versus ring subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. We examined 31 participants who underwent unilateral STN DBS (left n = 17; right n = 14) as part of an National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored randomized, double-blind, crossover study contrasting directional versus ring stimulation. All participants received unilateral DBS implants in the hemisphere more severely affected by motor parkinsonism. Measures of cognition included verbal fluency, auditory-verbal memory, and response inhibition. We used mixed linear models to contrast the effects of directional versus ring stimulation and implant hemisphere on longitudinal cognitive function. Crossover analyses showed no evidence for group-level changes in cognitive performance related to directional versus ring stimulation. Implant hemisphere, however, impacted cognition in several ways. Left STN participants had lower baseline verbal fluency than patients with right implants (t [20.66 = -2.50, p = 0.02]). Verbal fluency declined after left (p = 0.013) but increased after right STN DBS (p < 0.001), and response inhibition was faster following right STN DBS (p = 0.031). Regardless of hemisphere, delayed recall declined modestly over time versus baseline (p = 0.001), and immediate recall was unchanged. Directional versus ring STN DBS did not differentially affect cognition. Similar to prior bilateral DBS studies, unilateral left stimulation worsened verbal fluency performance. In contrast, unilateral right STN surgery increased performance on verbal fluency and response inhibition tasks. Our findings raise the hypothesis that unilateral right STN DBS in selected patients with predominant right brain motor parkinsonism could mitigate declines in verbal fluency associated with the bilateral intervention. ANN NEUROL 2024;95:1205-1219.

Reliability of clinical judgment for evaluation of informed consent in mental health settings and the validation of the Evaluation of Informed Consent to Treatment (EICT) scale.

The competence assessment to give informed consent in the legal and healthcare settings is often performed merely through clinical judgment. Given the acknowledged limited reliability of clinician-based evaluation in the mental health sector, particularly for the assessment of competence to consent, our objective was to ascertain the dependability of clinical judgment when evaluating the ability of schizophrenia patients to make choices about their health. The potential convergence between clinical evaluation and scores from a new standardized assessment (the "Evaluation of Informed Consent to Treatment" - "EICT" scale) was therefore tested. The scale assesses four dimensions of competence, specifically how patients normally understand information relating to care (Understanding); how they evaluate the choice of treatment in terms of risk/benefit ratio (Evaluating); how they reason coherently in the decision-making process (Reasoning); and, finally, their ability to make a choice between treatment alternatives (Expressing a choice). Thirty-four outpatients with schizophrenia were evaluated for their competence to consent by five referring clinicians with different backgrounds (psychiatrist, forensic psychiatrist, geriatrician, anesthetist, and medico-legal doctor). Inter-raters variability was tested through correlation analyses between the scores obtained by the clinicians on a modified version of the Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF) designed specifically to subjectively assess functioning in each of the four competence dimensions. Two validated competence scales (Mac-CAT-T, SICIATRI-R), and a neuropsychological battery were also administered along with scales for evaluating neuropsychiatric symptoms severity and side effects of medication. Clinical judgments of the individual specialists showed great inter-rater variability. Likewise, only weak/non-significant correlations were found between the EICT subscales and the respective clinicians-rated GAF scales. Conversely, solid correlations were found between the EICT and MacCAT-T subscales. As expected, healthy controls performed better in the ability to give informed consent to treatment, as measured by the three scales (i.e., EICT, MacCAT-T, and SICIATRI-R), and neuropsychological test performance. In the comparisons between patients who, according to the administered EICT, were able or not able to give informed consent to treatment, significant differences emerged for the Phonemic verbal fluency task (p = 0.038), Verbal judgments (p = 0.048), MacCAT-T subscales, and SICIATRI-R total score. Moreover, EICT exhibited excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranging from 0.96 to 0.98 for the four subscales) while the Item Analysis, by measuring the correlation between each item of the EICT and the total score, was excellent for all items of all subscales (alphas ranging from 0.86 to 0.98). In conclusion, our findings highlighted that the assessment of competence exclusively through clinical judgment is not fully reliable and needs the support of standardized tools. The EICT scale could therefore be useful in assessing general competence to consent both in healthcare and legal contexts, where it might be necessary to evaluate the effective competence of patients with psychiatric disorders. Finally, this scale could serve as a valuable tool for decisions regarding whether and to what extent a patient needs support.

Anxiety symptoms without depression are associated with cognitive control network (CNN) dysfunction: An fNIRS study.

Anxiety is a common psychological disorder associated with other mental disorders, with depression being the most common comorbidity. Few studies have examined the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety after controlling for depression. This study aimed to explore whether there are differences in cortical activation in anxiety patients with different severities whose depression are normal. In the current study, depression levels were normal for 366 subjects-139 healthy subjects, 117 with mild anxiety, and 110 with major anxiety. Using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and a verbal fluency task (VFT) to test subjects' anxiety and depression and cognitive function, respectively. A 53-channel guided near-infrared spectroscopic imaging technology (fNIRS) detected the concentration of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb). Correlation analysis between anxiety severity and oxy-Hb concentration in the brain cortex was performed, as well as ANOVA analysis of oxy-Hb concentration among the three anxiety severity groups. The results showed that anxiety severity was significantly and negatively correlated with oxy-Hb concentrations in the left frontal eye field (lFEF) and in the right dorsolateral prefrontal area (rDLPFC). The oxy-Hb concentration in the lFEF and the rDLPFC were significantly lower in the major anxiety disorder group than that in the control group. This suggests that decreased cortical activity of the lFEF and rDLPFC may be neural markers of anxiety symptoms after controlling for depression. Anxiety symptoms without depression may be result from the dysfunction of the cognitive control network (CCN) which includes the lFEF and rDLPFC.

Evaluating Cognitive-Motor Interference in Multiple Sclerosis: A Technology-Based Approach.

People with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) frequently present both cognitive and motor impairments, so it is reasonable to assume they may have difficulties in executing dual-tasks (DT). The aim of the present study is to identify novel technology-based parameters to assess cognitive-motor interference (CMI) in PwMS. In particular, we focused on the definition of dual-task cost (DTC) measures using wearable and portable tools such as insoles and mobile apps. All participants underwent a verbal fluency task (cognitive single-task, ST), a motor ST of walking, and a combination of these tasks (DT). Number of words uttered in the cognitive ST and steps recorded by insoles were used to calculate the motor and cognitive DTC. The number of steps strongly correlated with the walked meters for both single- (r = 0.88, p < 0.05) and dual- (r = 0.91, p < 0.05) tasks. Motor but not cognitive performances significantly worsened during DT. Over the cognitive ST and DT, the number of pronounced words progressively decreased, probably due to the activation of different cognitive processes. Cognitive efforts could be the cause of cognitive task prioritization. Our findings promote the use of low-cost devices to assess CMI easily in the clinical context and to detect ecologically valid DT impairments.

Psychometrics and diagnostics of the Italian version of the Alternate Verbal Fluency Battery (AVFB) in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients.

Verbal fluency (VF) tasks are known as suitable for detecting cognitive impairment (CI) in Parkinson's disease (PD). This study thus aimed to evaluate the psychometrics and diagnostics of the Alternate Verbal Fluency Battery (AVFB) by Costa et al. (2014) in an Italian cohort of non-demented PD patients, as well as to derive disease-specific cut-offs for it. N = 192 non-demented PD patients were screened with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and underwent the AVFB-which includes phonemic, semantic and alternate VF tests (PVF; SVF; AVF), as well as a Composite Shifting Index (CSI) reflecting the "cost" of shifting from a single- to a double-cued VF task. Construct validity and diagnostics were assessed for each AVFB measure against the MoCA. Internal reliability and factorial validity were also tested. The MoCA proved to be strongly associated with PVF, SVF and AVF scores, whilst moderately with the CSI. The AVFB was internally consistent and underpinned by a single component; however, an improvement in both internal reliability and fit to its factorial structure was observed when dropping the CSI. Demographically adjusted scores on PVF, SVF and AVF tests were diagnostically sound in detecting MoCA-defined cognitive impairment, whilst this was not true for the CSI. Disease-specific cut-offs for PVF, SVF and AVF tests were derived. In conclusion, PVF, SVF and AVF tests are reliable, valid and diagnostically sound instruments to detect cognitive impairment in non-demented PD patients and are therefore recommended for use in clinical practice and research.

Efficacy and executive function of solution-focused brief therapy on adolescent depression.

To investigate the efficacy and impact on executive function of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) in treating Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in adolescents. A total of 129 adolescents diagnosed with MDD were enrolled in the study. Out of these, 28 adolescents were assigned to the SFBT group, while 25 were part of the Active Control group (AC group), receiving psychodynamic psychotherapy. Executive function, depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed at baseline, at the time of the third intervention, the sixth intervention, and the 10th intervention. After the third intervention, the scores of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) of the participants in the SFBT group decreased significantly, which had the cumulative effect at the 6th and 10th interventions. The verbal fluency task (VFT) performances of the SFBT group participants yielded significantly higher scores after the third intervention and remained increasing at the 6th and 10th interventions. The AC group steadily decreased after the intervention. Analysis of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data revealed a progressive and significant increase in the average oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the SFBT group compared to the AC group after the 10th intervention. SFBT might improve depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as executive function of adolescent depression. https://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2300067909.

Abnormal prefrontal cortical activation during the GO/NOGO and verbal fluency tasks in adult patients with comorbid generalized anxiety disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: An fNIRS study

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are commonly reported comorbidities. Adult GAD patients with comorbid ADHD are often underdiagnosed and undertreated. To explore the clinical value of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data for assisting in the accurate diagnosis of ADHD in individuals with GAD, haemoglobin (HbO) concentration changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were detected via fNIRS in 49 patients with both GAD and ADHD, 46 patients with GAD, and 34 healthy controls (HCs) during a verbal fluency task (VFT) and a GO/NOGO task. The correlations between PFC fNIRS data and the severity of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms assessed using the adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) were analyzed. Our results showed that, during the GO/NOGO task, channels in the left dorsolateral PFC (channels 28 and 29) were hyperactivated, while channels in the medial PFC (channels 36, 37, and 47) were hypoactivated in participants with ADHD and GAD compared with those with GAD alone. During the VFT, compared with the HC group, both the ADHD + GAD group and the GAD group exhibited significantly decreased HbO activation in the medial PFC (channels 37, 38, and 48) and in the left ventrolateral PFC (channel 39); moreover, no difference was found between the ADHD + GAD group and the GAD group. Activation in the left dorsolateral PFC (channels 28 and 29) during the GO/NOGO task showed a significant positive correlation with ASRS-inattention scores. Our results indicated that fNIRS data collected during the GO/NOGO task may help to distinguish patients with comorbid GAD and ADHD from those with GAD alone.

Type of bilingualism, task domain, and attention demands impact children's cognitive performance.

The present study investigated the relation between continuous measures of two qualitatively different types of bilingual experience and outcome measures that varied in domain (verbal or nonverbal) and processing demands (degree of conflict). Participants were 195 English-speaking children, 7 years old, who were enrolled in French immersion programs. Children were assessed for their degree of "home bilingualism," reflecting language use patterns at home, and "school bilingualism," reflecting progress in learning French. None of the children spoke French at home. Participants completed verbal fluency, n-back, and global-local tasks, with conditions within tasks varying in degree of attentional processing required. Type of bilingual experience affected verbal and nonverbal tasks differently. Home bilingualism was positively associated with performance on attentionally demanding conditions of the n-back and global-local tasks, the two nonverbal tasks, whereas school bilingualism was positively associated with performance on English verbal fluency, the linguistic task. In both cases, results were modulated by the degree of bilingual experience. These results underline the importance of specifying the type and degree of bilingual experience and the details of the outcome tasks to understand the impact of bilingualism on children's development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Verbal fluency predicts work resumption after awake surgery in low-grade glioma patients.

Resuming professional activity after awake surgery for diffuse low-grade glioma (DLGG) is an important goal, which is not reached in every patient. Cognitive deficits can occur and persist after surgery. In this study, we analyzed the impact of mild cognitive impairments on the work resumption. Fifty-four surgeries (including five redo surgeries) performed between 2012 and 2020 for grade 2 (45) and 3 (nine) DLGG in 49 professionally active patients (mean age 40 [range 23-58.) were included. We retrospectively extracted the results of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tests from preoperative and 4-month postoperative cognitive assessments. Patients were interviewed about their working life after surgery, between April and June 2021. Patients (85%) returned to work, most within 3 to 6months. Patients (76%) reported subjective complaints (primarily fatigue). Self-reported symptoms and individual and clinical variables had no impact on the work resumption. Late-postoperative average Z-scores in verbal fluency tasks were significantly lower than preoperative for the entire cohort (Wilcoxon test, p < 0.001 for semantic and p = 0.008 for phonemic fluency). The decrease in Z-scores was significantly greater (Mann Whitney U-test, semantic, p = 0.018; phonemic, p = 0.004) in the group of patients who did not return to work than in the group of patients who did. The proportion of patients returning to work was comparable to similar studies. A decrease in verbal fluency tasks could predict the inability to return to work.

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.

The importance of response times measures in verbal fluency tasks

Verbal fluency is a commonly used task in clinical and experimental neuropsychology. It assesses a person’s ability to generate relevant words, according to a given category within a limited amount of time. Phonemic (PF) and semantic (SF) fluency tasks reflect different aspects of language and executive function abilities. In the present study, we investigated first response latency as an additional measure of phonemic, semantic and excluded letter fluency of 44 healthy adults (aged 18 to 39 years old) divided in 2 groups, according to their education level. We investigated potential correlations between response times and education level. Preliminary results from a small sample show that when comparing phonemic, semantic and excluded letter tasks the shortest response time was observed in semantic fluency tasks whereas the excluded letter tasks have the longest (Z = -5.35, p &lt; 0.0005). Education appeared to have a significant negative effect on the mean response times of the participants (for PF U = 137, p = 0.014; for ELF U = 141.5, p = 0.018; for SF t = 2.05, p = 0.046). These results constitute a potential underexamined way to investigate lexical organization and access in verbal fluency. Also, we noted that education contributes not only to overall performance but to response times as well.

Structural brain morphometry differences and similarities between young patients with Crohn's disease in remission and healthy young and old controls.

Crohn's disease (CD), one of the main phenotypes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. It can impact the function of gastrointestinal secretions, as well as increasing the intestinal permeability leading to an aberrant immunological response and subsequent intestinal inflammation. Studies have reported anatomical and functional brain changes in Crohn's Disease patients (CDs), possibly due to increased inflammatory markers and microglial cells that play key roles in communicating between the brain, gut, and systemic immune system. To date, no studies have demonstrated similarities between morphological brain changes seen in IBD and brain morphometry observed in older healthy controls.. For the present study, twelve young CDs in remission (M = 26.08 years, SD = 4.9 years, 7 male) were recruited from an IBD Clinic. Data from 12 young age-matched healthy controls (HCs) (24.5 years, SD = 3.6 years, 8 male) and 12 older HCs (59 years, SD = 8 years, 8 male), previously collected for a different study under a similar MR protocol, were analyzed as controls. T1 weighted images and structural image processing techniques were used to extract surface-based brain measures, to test our hypothesis that young CDs have different brain surface morphometry than their age-matched young HCs and furthermore, appear more similar to older HCs. The phonemic verbal fluency (VF) task (the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, COWAT) (Benton, 1976) was administered to test verbal cognitive ability and executive control. On the whole, CDs had more brain regions with differences in brain morphometry measures when compared to the young HCs as compared to the old HCs, suggesting that CD has an effect on the brain that makes it appear more similar to old HCs. Additionally, our study demonstrates this atypical brain morphometry is associated with function on a cognitive task. These results suggest that even younger CDs may be showing some evidence of structural brain changes that demonstrate increased resemblance to older HC brains rather than their similarly aged healthy counterparts.

Effects of resistance training associated with a verbal fluency task on physical performance and cognitive function in frail nursing home residents

ObjectivesStudies examining the effects of dual-task resistance training (RT) on nursing-home residents are still scarce. To add knowledge to this field, the present study compared the effects of 12-week RT and RT plus cognitive task (COG) programs on physical performance and cognitive function in a sample of frail nursing home residents. MethodsThis is an experimental study that combined data from two studies that examined older adults living in nursing home residences in Brazil. Exercise groups performed a 12-week RT protocol that included four exercises, with 3–4 times (sets) of 8–10 repetitions at 70 %-75 % of 1-repetition maximum (1RM), twice a week. The RT+COG group evoked as many words was possible for specific categories during concentric actions of the squat on the chair (until 90° knee flexion) and seated unilateral knee extension exercises. Global cognitive function and physical performance were evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) tests, respectively. ResultsAfter interventions, participants in the RT+COG and RT groups had significantly greater lower-limb muscle strength compared with the control group (CG). Those in the RT+COG group had greater tandem performance in comparison to RT and CG groups. ConclusionsOur findings indicate that RT preserves lower-limb muscle strength in frail nursing home residents, regardless of performance of cognitive tasks. Better balance was exclusively observed in the RT+COG, whereas significant improvements in mobility status were only found in the RT group. The present investigation was based on a small sample of nursing home residents. Larger and more structured studies are necessary to confirm our results.

Verbal fluency patterns associated with the amnestic conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia

Patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are at a higher risk of converting to Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this study was to examine the potential use of Verbal Fluency (VF) measures as markers for predicting the conversion to dementia. At baseline, 61 aMCI, aged 65 to 80 years, underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, including phonemic (PVF) and semantic verbal fluency (SVF) tasks. After 18 months, 14 individuals with aMCI had progressed to a diagnosis of dementia. The findings revealed that aMCI-converter group had lower Mini Mental State Examination and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Task scores than aMCI-no converter and produced fewer clusters in both VF tasks and a lower number of switches in PVF at baseline (p < 0.05). According to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the number of clusters in PVF had the highest predictive value (AUC = 0.80) with a threshold of 5.510 for identifying aMCI-converter at baseline. Additionally, participants with higher levels of education exhibited more clusters and switches in VF tasks (p < 0.05). These results suggest that qualitative measures of VF could serve as neuropsychological markers for predicting cognitive decline in individuals with aMCI. Furthermore, the study highlights the potential influence of the education level on cognitive performance in neuropsychological tasks.