The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

<i>Backround and Objectives</i>: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degrade...

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Autores principales:	Gian Daniele Zannino, Roberta Perri, Camillo Marra, Gulia Caruso, Matteo Baroncini, Carlo Caltagirone, Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	semantic dementia Alzheimer’s disease semantic memory free associations Medicine (General) R5-920
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/0bfba8277a084bceaa1a6d73db8097b0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:0bfba8277a084bceaa1a6d73db8097b02021-11-25T18:18:18ZThe Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease10.3390/medicina571111711648-91441010-660Xhttps://doaj.org/article/0bfba8277a084bceaa1a6d73db8097b02021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/57/11/1171https://doaj.org/toc/1010-660Xhttps://doaj.org/toc/1648-9144<i>Backround and Objectives</i>: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degraded semantic representations in SD and degraded representations plus executive control deficit in AD. However, no easy administrable test or test battery for differentiating the semantic impairment profile in these populations has been devised yet. <i>Materials and Methods</i>: In this study, we propose a new easy administrable task based on a free association procedure (F-Assoc) to be used in conjunction with category fluency (Cat-Fl) and letter fluency (Lett-Fl) for quantifying pure representational and pure control deficits, thus teasing apart the semantic profile of SD and AD patients. <i>Results</i>: In a sample of 10 AD and 10 SD subjects, matched for disease severity, we show that indices of asymmetric performance contrasting F-Assoc and each of the two verbal fluency tasks yield a clearly distinguishable discrepancy pattern across SD and AD. We also provide empirical support for the validity of an asymmetry measure contrasting F-Assoc and Cat-FL as an index of control impairment. <i>Conclusions</i>: The present study suggests that the free association procedure provides a pure measure of degradation of semantic representations avoiding the confound of possible concomitant executive deficits.Gian Daniele ZanninoRoberta PerriCamillo MarraGulia CarusoMatteo BaronciniCarlo CaltagironeGiovanni Augusto CarlesimoMDPI AGarticlesemantic dementiaAlzheimer’s diseasesemantic memoryfree associationsMedicine (General)R5-920ENMedicina, Vol 57, Iss 1171, p 1171 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	semantic dementia Alzheimer’s disease semantic memory free associations Medicine (General) R5-920
spellingShingle	semantic dementia Alzheimer’s disease semantic memory free associations Medicine (General) R5-920 Gian Daniele Zannino Roberta Perri Camillo Marra Gulia Caruso Matteo Baroncini Carlo Caltagirone Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
description	<i>Backround and Objectives</i>: It is widely agreed that patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD) might fail clinically administered semantic tasks due to a different combination of underlying cognitive deficits: namely, degraded semantic representations in SD and degraded representations plus executive control deficit in AD. However, no easy administrable test or test battery for differentiating the semantic impairment profile in these populations has been devised yet. <i>Materials and Methods</i>: In this study, we propose a new easy administrable task based on a free association procedure (F-Assoc) to be used in conjunction with category fluency (Cat-Fl) and letter fluency (Lett-Fl) for quantifying pure representational and pure control deficits, thus teasing apart the semantic profile of SD and AD patients. <i>Results</i>: In a sample of 10 AD and 10 SD subjects, matched for disease severity, we show that indices of asymmetric performance contrasting F-Assoc and each of the two verbal fluency tasks yield a clearly distinguishable discrepancy pattern across SD and AD. We also provide empirical support for the validity of an asymmetry measure contrasting F-Assoc and Cat-FL as an index of control impairment. <i>Conclusions</i>: The present study suggests that the free association procedure provides a pure measure of degradation of semantic representations avoiding the confound of possible concomitant executive deficits.
format	article
author	Gian Daniele Zannino Roberta Perri Camillo Marra Gulia Caruso Matteo Baroncini Carlo Caltagirone Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo
author_facet	Gian Daniele Zannino Roberta Perri Camillo Marra Gulia Caruso Matteo Baroncini Carlo Caltagirone Giovanni Augusto Carlesimo
author_sort	Gian Daniele Zannino
title	The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
title_short	The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full	The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
title_fullStr	The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
title_full_unstemmed	The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
title_sort	free association task: proposal of a clinical tool for detecting differential profiles of semantic impairment in semantic dementia and alzheimer’s disease
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/0bfba8277a084bceaa1a6d73db8097b0
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The Free Association Task: Proposal of a Clinical Tool for Detecting Differential Profiles of Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

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