Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Session Title: Parkinson's disease: Cognition
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Exhibit Hall located in Hall B, Level 2
Objective: To determine whether the phonemic verbal fluency test is a purely cognitive measure or involves cognitive-motor interaction, if related to TMT.
Background: Two of the most used tests in clinical evaluation and scientific studies with PD patients are the Trail Making Test (TMT) and the VF. However, these tests are frequently interpreted as only providing executive function measures. Few studies consider them as cognitive-motor measures. Therefore, the motor component, which may be impaired, is overlooked. For TMT some extrapolations have been carried out, because part A involves mainly motor aspects and part B adds cognitive overload. The delta (part B – part A) isolates the cognitive performance. In the interpretation of VF, motor aspects are not considered. Therefore, a motor dysfunction (due to bradykinesia of phonoarticulatory muscles) can be interpreted as cognitive impairment.
Methods: Forty patients diagnosed with PD (Hoehn & Yahr 2-3) from the Movement Disorders clinic at the Hospital das Clinicas and twenty-seven healthy elderly controls participated. They had normal performance on Mini Mental State Examination (score above 24). Groups were similar in age and education. Evaluation consisted of TMT and phonemic VF. As the groups showed non-normal distribution, Spearman correlation tests were used to test relations between the variables for both groups separately. Significance level was set at alfa<0.05.
Results: Table 1 shows the correlations between VF and TMT. The scatterplots in figures 1 and 2 show the performance on part B and VF of both groups
Phonemic fluency test | TMT A | TMT B | TMT delta |
---|---|---|---|
PD patients | -0,631 | -0,733 | -0,481 |
Healthy elderlies | -0,185 | -0,249 | -0,249 |
![](https://www.mdsabstracts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/550372_vf_x_tmtb_pd.jpg)
![](https://www.mdsabstracts.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/550372_vf_x_tmtb_he.jpg)
Conclusions: Verbal fluency is a cognitive-motor test and, in PD patients, the interpretation of results as only cognitive assessment should be done with caution.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
A.F. Barbosa, M.C. Voos, C.O. Souza, J. Chen, H.F. Chien, D.V. Francato, E.R. Barbosa, L.L. Mansur. Executive function and verbal fluency in patients with Parkinson’s disease [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/executive-function-and-verbal-fluency-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/. Accessed September 7, 2024.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/executive-function-and-verbal-fluency-in-patients-with-parkinsons-disease/