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Longitudinal Verbal Fluency in Normal Aging, Preclinical, and Prevalent Alzheimer’s DiseaseAlzheimer Disease Research Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, wmack{at}usc.edu
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
Key Words: dementia • neuropsychology • fluency • Alzheimer’s disease • semantic memory • cognitive impairment
This version was published on December
1, 2009 American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias®, Vol. 24, No. 6,
461-468 (2009) |
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.02). Overall, animal fluency declined faster than letter fluency; animal fluency declined significantly faster than letter fluency among cognitively normal and prevalent AD participants. 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.