Objective: Our aim is to investigate if action verb retrieval is impaired, compared to sensorial verbs using a sentence completion task in non-demented Parkinson´s Disease (PD) patients.

Background: PD patients have a selective deficit in action verb processing suggesting an involvement of motor areas in the processing of action words. Numerous studies have studied action verb processing using verbal fluency, lexical decision, reading or naming actions, however retrieval verbs in a sentence completion task is not yet studied comparing action and sensorial verbs.

Methods: We involved 17 non-demented PD patients and 17 healthy controls matched for age and years of school in a sentence completion task. The sentence completion task had 28 trials. 14 sentences were correctly completed by an action verb and 14 by a sensorial verb. We collected correct/incorrect responses and reaction times. Both sensorial and action verbs were matched for word frequency.

Results: ANOVA analyses for correct responses showed a significant interaction between group and type of verb required (p<.005) indicating a small number of correct responses in the PD group when action verbs was required. Also, PD patients had longer reaction times retrieving action verbs. Overall the results showed that PD patients had more errors and longer reaction times when action verbs are required, compared to sensorial verbs.

Conclusions: The results indicate that the performance of PD patients is affected by the content of the action–related verbs. These data support the hypothesis of the involvement of brain motor areas in the processing and retrieval of lwords with action-related semantic content.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/retrieval-action-verbs-is-impaired-in-parkinsons-disease-patients-using-a-sentence-completion-task/