Department of Educational Psychology, Kerman Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kerman, Iran.
Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
Res Dev Disabil. 2022 Dec;131:104358. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2022.104358. Epub 2022 Oct 6.
Executive functioning (EF) is an area of challenge for individuals with Down syndrome (DS) associated with a variety of downstream difficulties. Verbal fluency performance is one potential downstream effect that is commonly assessed in individuals with DS due to the measure's utility as a predictor of dementia. Verbal fluency requires individuals to inhibit irrelevant responses, shift between groupings of related words, and monitor to prevent repetition, all skills related to EF.
This study aimed to determine the association between semantic verbal fluency performance and three EF subdomains (inhibition, shifting, and working memory) in youth with DS after taking into account vocabulary and cognitive ability.
Neuropsychological assessments (verbal and visuospatial), and parent reports of EF, were completed at one time point by 69 youth with DS 6-17 years old and their caregivers. Expressive and receptive vocabulary skills and cognitive ability were also assessed.
The results revealed that verbal fluency performance was significantly associated with neuropsychological assessments of EF and parent report of inhibition even after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and cognitive ability.
The findings highlight the underlying importance of EF in verbal fluency tasks in youth with DS.
执行功能（EF）是唐氏综合征（DS）患者面临的一个挑战领域，与各种下游困难有关。由于该测量方法作为痴呆症预测指标的效用，流畅性言语表现是 DS 患者中常见评估的一种潜在下游影响。流畅性言语需要个体抑制无关反应、在相关词的组群之间转换以及监控以防止重复，这些都是与 EF 相关的技能。
本研究旨在考虑词汇和认知能力后，确定 DS 青少年的语义流畅性言语表现与三个 EF 子领域（抑制、转换和工作记忆）之间的关联。
69 名 6-17 岁的 DS 青少年及其照顾者在同一时间完成了神经心理学评估（言语和视空间）和 EF 的家长报告。还评估了表达性和接受性词汇技能以及认知能力。
即使在控制词汇和认知能力的影响后，结果表明流畅性言语表现与 EF 的神经心理学评估和家长报告的抑制显著相关。
这些发现强调了 EF 在 DS 青少年言语流畅性任务中的重要性。
