Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus MC - University Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Neurology and Alzheimer Center Erasmus MC, Erasmus MC - University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
J Neuropsychol. 2024 Mar;18 Suppl 1:19-40. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12356. Epub 2023 Dec 12.
Glioma patients often suffer from deficits in language and executive functioning. Performance in verbal fluency (generating words within one minute according to a semantic category-category fluency, or given letter-letter fluency) is typically impaired in this patient group. While both language and executive functioning play a role in verbal fluency, the relative contribution of both domains remains unclear. We aim to retrospectively investigate glioma patients' performance on verbal and nonverbal fluency and to explore the influence of language and executive functioning on verbal fluency. Sixty-nine adults with gliomas in eloquent areas underwent a neuropsychological test battery (verbal fluency, nonverbal fluency, language, and executive functioning tests) before surgery (T1) and a subgroup of 31 patients also at three (T2) and twelve months (T3) after surgery. Preoperatively, patients were impaired in all verbal fluency tasks and dissociations were found based on tumour location. In contrast, nonverbal fluency was intact. Different language and executive functioning tests predicted performance on category fluency animals and letter fluency, while no significant predictors for category fluency professions were found. The longitudinal results indicated that category fluency professions deteriorated after surgery (T1-T2, T1-T3) and that nonverbal fluency improved after surgery (T1-T3, T2-T3). Verbal fluency performance can provide information on different possible underlying deficits in language and executive functioning in glioma patients, depending on verbal fluency task selection. Efficient task (order) selection can be based on complexity. Category fluency professions can be selected to detect more permanent long-term deficits.
脑胶质瘤患者常伴有语言和执行功能障碍。该患者群体在词语流畅性测试（根据语义类别一分钟内生成单词-类别流畅性，或给定字母-字母流畅性）中的表现通常受损。虽然语言和执行功能都对词语流畅性有影响，但两个领域的相对贡献尚不清楚。我们旨在回顾性研究脑胶质瘤患者在词语和非词语流畅性方面的表现，并探讨语言和执行功能对词语流畅性的影响。69 名位于语言区的脑胶质瘤成人患者在术前（T1）接受神经心理学测试（词语流畅性、非词语流畅性、语言和执行功能测试），其中 31 名患者亚组还在术后 3 个月（T2）和 12 个月（T3）进行测试。术前，患者在所有词语流畅性任务中表现受损，并且根据肿瘤位置发现了分离。相比之下，非词语流畅性完好无损。不同的语言和执行功能测试预测了类别流畅性动物和字母流畅性的表现，而类别流畅性职业则没有找到显著的预测因素。纵向结果表明，类别流畅性职业在术后（T1-T2，T1-T3）恶化，而非词语流畅性在术后（T1-T3，T2-T3）改善。词语流畅性表现可以提供有关脑胶质瘤患者语言和执行功能不同潜在缺陷的信息，具体取决于词语流畅性任务的选择。高效的任务（顺序）选择可以基于复杂性。类别流畅性职业可以用于检测更持久的长期缺陷。
