Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls
Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis )ALS( patients suffer from cognitive and language impairments. One of the most striking and consistent cognitive dysfunctions in these patients is verbal fluency deficits. The aim of this study is the determination of...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jrsr.sums.ac.ir/article_44718.html |
| _version_ | 1828221030746816512 |
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| author | Najme Mardani Nahid Jalilevand Mona Ebrahimipour Mohammad Kamali |
| author_facet | Najme Mardani Nahid Jalilevand Mona Ebrahimipour Mohammad Kamali |
| author_sort | Najme Mardani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Recent studies have demonstrated that Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis )ALS( patients suffer from cognitive and language impairments. One
of the most striking and consistent cognitive dysfunctions in these patients
is verbal fluency deficits. The aim of this study is the determination of verbal
fluency performance of Persian speakers with ALS.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional, analytical-descriptive study. In this study,
30 individuals (15 patients with ALS, and 15 healthy people) were examined
by verbal fluency test. Verbal fluency test is a cognitive-linguistic test that has
two subtests: phonemic fluency and semantic fluency; in each of them, words
normally fall in clusters. Finally, the total number of words, mean cluster
sizes and number of switches between clusters are counted and the results are
compared between patients with ALS and healthy control groups.
Results: There was a significant difference between the patient group and
the control group in the mean naming total scores (P≤0.05) and in the mean
switching scores (P≤0.05), but not in the mean clusters scores (P≥0.05).
Conclusion: Result of this study shows that ALS patients have a deficit in total
naming and switching parts of verbal fluency test, but they have no impairment
in clustering part. Based on these results, it seems that these patients may have
problems in searching in the lexicon, but no problem in accessing words in
clusters. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:36:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fbe9c435a7a840feb413e23fe829ced9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2345-6159 2345-6159 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T16:36:12Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | Shiraz University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-fbe9c435a7a840feb413e23fe829ced92022-12-22T03:25:00ZengShiraz University of Medical SciencesJournal of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research2345-61592345-61592019-03-0106012126Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy ControlsNajme Mardani0Nahid Jalilevand1Mona Ebrahimipour2Mohammad Kamali3Department of Speech and Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IranDepartment of Speech and Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Speech and Language Pathology, University Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Rehabilitation Management, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranBackground: Recent studies have demonstrated that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis )ALS( patients suffer from cognitive and language impairments. One of the most striking and consistent cognitive dysfunctions in these patients is verbal fluency deficits. The aim of this study is the determination of verbal fluency performance of Persian speakers with ALS. Methods: It was a cross-sectional, analytical-descriptive study. In this study, 30 individuals (15 patients with ALS, and 15 healthy people) were examined by verbal fluency test. Verbal fluency test is a cognitive-linguistic test that has two subtests: phonemic fluency and semantic fluency; in each of them, words normally fall in clusters. Finally, the total number of words, mean cluster sizes and number of switches between clusters are counted and the results are compared between patients with ALS and healthy control groups. Results: There was a significant difference between the patient group and the control group in the mean naming total scores (P≤0.05) and in the mean switching scores (P≤0.05), but not in the mean clusters scores (P≥0.05). Conclusion: Result of this study shows that ALS patients have a deficit in total naming and switching parts of verbal fluency test, but they have no impairment in clustering part. Based on these results, it seems that these patients may have problems in searching in the lexicon, but no problem in accessing words in clusters.http://jrsr.sums.ac.ir/article_44718.htmlamyotrophic lateral sclerosisverbal fluencycognition |
| spellingShingle | Najme Mardani Nahid Jalilevand Mona Ebrahimipour Mohammad Kamali Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls Journal of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research amyotrophic lateral sclerosis verbal fluency cognition |
| title | Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls |
| title_full | Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls |
| title_fullStr | Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls |
| title_full_unstemmed | Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls |
| title_short | Clustering and Switching Strategies in Verbal Fluency Tasks: Comparison between Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Healthy Controls |
| title_sort | clustering and switching strategies in verbal fluency tasks comparison between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis als and healthy controls |
| topic | amyotrophic lateral sclerosis verbal fluency cognition |
| url | http://jrsr.sums.ac.ir/article_44718.html |
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