title: Action verbal fluency in Parkinson's patients.
abstract: We compared the performance of 31 non-demented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients to 61 healthy controls in an action verbal fluency task. Semantic and phonemic fluencies, cognitive impairment and behavioural dysfunction were also assessed. The mean disease duration of PD was 9.8 years (standard deviation (SD) = 6.13). There were no age (U = 899.5, p = 0.616), gender(chi-square = 0.00, p = 1.00) or literacy (U = 956, p = 0.96) differences between the two groups. A significant difference was observed between the two groups in the action verbal fluency task (U = 406.5, p < 0.01) that was not found in the other fluency tasks. The education level was the only biographical variable that influenced the action (verb) fluency outcomes, irrespective of disease duration. Our findings suggest a correlation between the disease mechanisms in PD and a specific verb deficit, support the validity of the action (verb) fluency as an executive function measure and suggest that this task provides unique information not captured with traditional executive function tasks.
authors.affiliation: Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação na Saúde, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Católica de Portugal, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Inês Tello
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joaquim J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Mario M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.affiliation: Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação na Saúde, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Católica de Portugal, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Castro-Caldas
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*