Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease

Joan McDowd; Lesa Hoffman; Ellen Rozek; Kelly E Lyons; Rajesh Pahwa; Jeffrey Burns; Susan Kemper

doi:10.1037/a0021531

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Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease

Joan McDowd, Lesa Hoffman, Ellen Rozek, Kelly E Lyons, Rajesh Pahwa, Jeffrey Burns and Susan Kemper

Neuropsychology, Vol.25(2), pp.210-225

03/2011

DOI: 10.1037/a0021531

PMID: 21381827

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http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8635View

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Abstract

Verbal fluency measures are frequently part of batteries designed to assess executive function (EF), but are also used to assess semantic processing ability or word knowledge. The goal of the present study was to identify the cognitive components underlying fluency performance. Healthy young and older adults, adults with Parkinson's disease, and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed letter, category, and action fluency tests. Performance was assessed in terms of number of items generated, clustering, and the time course of output. A series of neuropsychological assessments were also administered to index verbal ability, working memory, EF, and processing speed as correlates of fluency performance. Findings indicated that regardless of the particular performance measure, young adults performed the best and adults with Alzheimer's disease performed most poorly, with healthy older adults and adults with Parkinson's disease performing at intermediate levels. The exception was the action fluency task, where adults with Parkinson's disease performed most poorly. The time course of fluency performance was characterized in terms of slope and intercept parameters and related to neuropsychological constructs. Speed of processing was found to be the best predictor of performance, rather than the efficiency of EF or semantic knowledge. Together, these findings demonstrate that the pattern of fluency performance looks generally the same regardless of how performance is measured. In addition, the primary role of processing speed in performance suggests that the use of fluency tasks as measures of EF or verbal ability warrants reexamination.

Semantics

Verbal Behavior - physiology

Parkinson Disease - complications

Alzheimer Disease - complications

Verbal Learning

Humans

Middle Aged

Male

Memory, Short-Term - physiology

Comprehension

Neuropsychological Tests

Young Adult

Cognition Disorders - diagnosis

Aging - physiology

Analysis of Variance

Time Factors

Cognition Disorders - etiology

Aged, 80 and over

Adult

Female

Aged

Inhibition (Psychology)

Details

Title: Subtitle: Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease
Creators: Joan McDowd - Landon Center on Aging, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, MO, USA. mcdowdj@umkc.edu
Lesa Hoffman
Ellen Rozek
Kelly E Lyons
Rajesh Pahwa
Jeffrey Burns
Susan Kemper
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Neuropsychology, Vol.25(2), pp.210-225
DOI: 10.1037/a0021531
PMID: 21381827
NLM abbreviation: Neuropsychology
ISSN: 0894-4105
eISSN: 1931-1559
Publisher: United States
Grant note: P30 DC-005803 / NIDCD NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 03/2011
Academic Unit: Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
Record Identifier: 9983993489702771

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