Basal ganglia structures differentially contribute to verbal fluency: evidence from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected adults.
BACKGROUND
The basal ganglia (BG) are involved in executive language functions (i.e., verbal fluency) through their connections with cortical structures. The caudate and putamen receive separate inputs from prefrontal and premotor cortices, and may differentially contribute to verbal fluency performance. We examined BG integrity in relation to lexico-semantic verbal fluency performance among older HIV infected adults.


METHODS
20 older (50+ years) HIV+ adults underwent MRI and were administered measures of semantic and phonemic fluency. BG (caudate, putamen) regions of interest were extracted.


RESULTS
Performance on phonemic word generation significantly predicted caudate volume, whereas performance on phonemic switching predicted putamen volume.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest a double dissociation of BG involvement in verbal fluency tasks with the caudate subserving word generation and the putamen associated with switching. As such, verbal fluency tasks appear to be selective to BG function.
UCLA School of Medicine, 760 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States. athames@mednet.ucla.edu
April D
AD
Thames
Jessica M
JM
Foley
Matthew J
MJ
Wright
Stella E
SE
Panos
Mark
M
Ettenhofer
Amir
A
Ramezani
Vanessa
V
Streiff
Suzie
S
El-Saden
Scott
S
Goodwin
Susan Y
SY
Bookheimer
Charles H
CH
Hinkin
D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011699:Putamen / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior