AI Article Synopsis
- The study examined how cognitive impairment affects category (animal and supermarket) and letter (F, A, S) fluency in three groups: cognitively normal, preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD), and prevalent AD.
- At the start, individuals with prevalent and preclinical AD showed lower scores in category fluency compared to letter fluency, and both AD groups experienced faster declines in fluency compared to the cognitively normal group.
- The results suggest that category fluency declines more sharply than letter fluency, with this pattern helping to differentiate those in the early stages of AD from those with normal cognitive function.
Article Abstract
Background: Few longitudinal studies evaluate differences in patterns of change of category compared to letter fluency across the spectrum of cognitive impairment.
Methods: We compared change in category (animal and supermarket) and letter (F, A, S) fluency among 239 participants in 3 groups: remained cognitively normal throughout follow-up (n = 96), developed Alzheimer's Disease (AD; preclinical AD, n = 21), and with AD at initial testing (prevalent AD, n = 122).
Results: At baseline, prevalent and preclinical AD groups scored lower on animal than letter fluency. On all fluency measures, the prevalent AD declined faster than other groups (all P < .0001), and preclinical AD declined faster than unimpaired (all P
Conclusion: Greater longitudinal declines in category compared to letter fluency are consistent with cross-sectional studies. Steeper declines on both fluency measures distinguish preclinical AD from cognitively unimpaired individuals.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824246 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1533317509345154 | DOI Listing |
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