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Lexical and semantic fluency discrepancy scores in aMCI and early Alzheimer's disease
Author(s) -
Lonie Jane A.,
Herrmann Lucie L.,
Tierney Kevin M.,
Donaghey Claire,
O'Carroll Ronan,
Lee Andrew,
Ebmeier Klaus P.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of neuropsychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1748-6653
pISSN - 1748-6645
DOI - 10.1348/174866408x289935
Subject(s) - psychology , semantic memory , fluency , verbal fluency test , cognitive psychology , episodic memory , neuropsychology , cognition , alzheimer's disease , association (psychology) , audiology , disease , neuroscience , medicine , pathology , mathematics education , psychotherapist
Episodic memory is compromised in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but lesser deficits in other cognitive domains are also commonly observed and may be helpful in identifying this group. The relative difference in performance on lexical and semantic fluency tasks may be a sensitive and specific measure in aMCI and early Alzheimer's disease (AD). We compared four groups of participants, 35 early AD, 47 aMCI, 24 healthy controls, and 18 depressive out‐patient controls, on semantic and lexical fluency as well as other neuropsychological tests. Early AD and aMCI patients showed a distinct pattern of semantic impairment in the two fluency measures compared with the healthy and depressive controls. The findings implicate early failure of the semantic memory system in aMCI and AD and suggest that consideration of the discrepancy in performance on semantic and lexical fluency measures may help in the early identification of AD.