Verbal fluency (VF) is a widely used tool in neuropsychological assessment.Objective:We aimed to investigate the influence of age and educational level on clustering and switching in three VF modalities: phonemic (PVF), semantic (SVF) and unconstrained (UVF). We evaluated type of cluster, mean cluster size, and quantity of clusters, intersections, and returns. A total of 260 healthy subjects were assessed.Methods:Participants were divided into three age groups: young adults (18 to 39 years), middle-aged adults (40 to 59 years) and older adults (60 to 80 years) and into two groups of educational level: 1-8 years (low), 9 years or more (high). A two-way ANOVA analysis was conducted to analyze the effect of age and educational level and its interactions. A repeated measures ANOVA was performed to verify the performance during the task.Results:A main effect of age was detected on the UVF and SVF scores for total switches, taxonomic clusters, and for the total semantic clusters on the SVF. There was a greater effect of educational level on total switches (UVF, PFV and SVF), taxonomic clusters (UVF and SVF), thematic clusters and total semantic cluster (UVF), phonemic and mixed clusters (PVF), mean cluster size (UVF and SVF) and intersections (SVF). Educational level had a greater effect on all three VF tasks.

Introduction: Semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tasks are the most used verbal fluency versions to evaluate dementia patients, while unconstrained and action fluencies have been poorly investigated in aging. This study aimed to evaluate if the factors diagnosis, age, and reading and writing habits can predict the performance of four types of verbal fluency in healthy elderly (HE), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) participants. Method: Eighty participants were included in this study (21 mild AD, 32 MCI, and 27 HE). The participants performed a reading and writing habits questionnaire, neuropsychological evaluation, and semantic, phonemic, unconstrained, and action verbal fluency tasks. Diagnosis, age, and reading and writing habits were entered as predictors in a stepwise linear regression model for each of the four verbal fluency tasks. Results: The stepwise procedure eliminated age for all models as being nonsignificant. Unconstrained and semantic verbal fluency were better predicted by the diagnosis followed by reading and writing habits. On the other hand, phonemic and action verbal fluency were better predicted by reading and writing habits followed by diagnosis. Conclusion: Reading and writing habits contributed to the prediction of all verbal fluency tasks, highlighting their role in cognitive function. The sensitivity of these verbal fluency tasks to sociocultural and clinical factors should be considered in the neuropsychological assessment.

The first cluster replicated findings of previous studies on TBI EF profiles. IT is suggested that TBI rehabilitation studies of EF must select participants by their EF profile rather than for clinical or demographical variables.

Estabelecer o continuum de declínio cognitivo e funcional no envelhecimento normal para o patológico é desafi ador. Nesta transição está o Comprometimento Cognitivo Leve (CCL), defi nido por prejuízo sutil na cognição e funcionalidade. Quando o prejuízo funcional aumenta preenche critérios para demência. Assim, determinar a acurácia diagnóstica da avaliação funcional é imprescindível. Com isso o objetivo foi comparar o desempenho funcional através da avaliação direta versus indireta e avaliar a acurácia do desempenho destas avaliações entre controles, pacientes com CCL e com doença de Alzheimer (DA). Participaram 90 indivíduos (n=27 controles, n=35 pacientes com CCL e n=28 com DA). Foram utilizadas a Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire (ADL-Q) e a Direct Assessment of Functional Status (DAFS-R). Foram realizadas MANCOVA para comparar o desempenho funcional direto entre os participantes e curvas ROC para verifi car a acurácia diagnóstica das escalas entre os grupos. O desempenho da avaliação direta demonstrou diferenciar controles de CCL e CCL de DA. Ambas as escalas mostraram diferenciar CCL e DA, e a DAFS-R controles de CCL. Assim, a DAFS-R evidenciou melhor acurácia do desempenho funcional nestes grupos.

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