Zimmermann Nicolle, Branco Laura, Ska Bernadette, Gasparetto Emerson Leandro, Joanette Yves, Fonseca Rochele
a Postgraduate Program in Psychology, Human Cognition, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul , Porto Alegre , Brazil.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2014;21(4):260-8. doi: 10.1080/09084282.2013.802693. Epub 2013 Oct 3.
This study aimed to verify dissociations in the performance of verbal fluency tasks with different production criteria and duration following vascular right-hemisphere damage. We tested the hypothesis that longer fluency tasks would be more sensitive in identifying deficits in the sample. The relationship between verbal fluency performance and sustained attention was also investigated. Forty adults with vascular right-hemisphere damage were assessed using verbal fluency tasks with three different production criteria (unconstrained, phonemic, and semantic fluencies from the Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery). Performance deficits in 1-min and 2-min fluency tasks were calculated (Z score) and compared (chi-square). Results did not suggest a difference in sensitivity between the task lengths in detecting cognitive impairment. However, double dissociations were found, highlighting the contribution of extended verbal fluency tasks to neuropsychological assessment. Analyses also showed that participants exhibited greater levels of impairment in the semantic fluency task. No relationship was identified between performance in sustained attention tasks and verbal fluency tasks, regardless of the latter's duration. The combined use of longer and shorter fluency tasks in the assessment of patients with right brain damage may contribute to the identification of different executive function impairments in this sample.
本研究旨在验证在血管性右半球损伤后，具有不同生成标准和时长的言语流畅性任务表现中的分离现象。我们检验了这样一个假设，即更长的流畅性任务在识别样本中的缺陷方面会更敏感。同时还研究了言语流畅性表现与持续注意力之间的关系。使用具有三种不同生成标准（来自蒙特利尔交流评估量表的无限制、音素和语义流畅性）的言语流畅性任务，对40名患有血管性右半球损伤的成年人进行了评估。计算了1分钟和2分钟流畅性任务中的表现缺陷（Z分数）并进行比较（卡方检验）。结果并未表明任务时长在检测认知障碍方面的敏感性存在差异。然而，发现了双重分离现象，突出了延长的言语流畅性任务对神经心理学评估的贡献。分析还表明，参与者在语义流畅性任务中表现出更高水平的损伤。无论言语流畅性任务的时长如何，在持续注意力任务的表现与言语流畅性任务之间均未发现相关性。在评估右脑损伤患者时，结合使用更长和更短的流畅性任务可能有助于识别该样本中不同的执行功能损伤。
