Abstract
This study explores the possibility to capitalize from a widely used semantic fluency test, in order to investigate aspects of topographical space representation, still poorly studied in neurodegenerative diseases. Twenty-six patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 13 healthy control (CTR) subjects underwent neuropsychological assessment at baseline (T0) and about 2 years later (T1). The cities named during category verbal fluency test ("names of cities") were marked on a map, and the polygon perimeter obtained by joining the external points was computed. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score, number of cities named and perimeter length were compared between T0 and T1, both within-group and between groups. MMSE score and number of cities significantly differed between AD and CTR both at T0 and at T1; perimeter length differed significantly only at T1. Between T0 and T1, all the three parameters significantly decreased in AD, while they were substantially unchanged in CTR. Besides a reduction of semantic verbal fluency, there seems to be a 'restriction' of mental geographic space representation already in mild AD. These findings should be confirmed and exploited by further ad hoc investigations.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 198-201 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 1 2010 |
Keywords
- Alzheimer's disease
- Neurodegenerative diseases
- Semantic fluency test
- Semantic memory
- Topographical space representation
- Verbal fluency
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Health(social science)
- Ageing
- Gerontology
- Geriatrics and Gerontology