Breathing signatures of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency and their impact on test performance in a sample of young Norwegian adults.

Verbal fluency (VF) represents an important aspect of intelligence, in which oral word generation is demanded following semantic or phonemic cues. Two reliable phenomena of VF execution have been reported: A decay in performance across 1-minute trial and a discrepancy score between the semantic and phonemic VF tests (VFTs). Although, these characteristics have been explained from various cognitive standpoints, the fundamental role of speech breathing has not yet been considered.

Effects of verbal tasks with varying difficulty on real-time respiratory airflow during speech generation in healthy young adults.

Objective: Respiratory function is linked to sensory, affective, and cognitive processes and it is affected by environmental constraints such as cognitive demands. It is suggested that specific cognitive processes, such as working memory or executive functioning, may impact breathing. In turn, various lines of research have suggested a link between peak expiratory airflow (PEF) and cognitive function.