Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T06:49:11.079Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex differences in clustering and switching in verbal fluency tasks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2006

ELISABETH M. WEISS ,
J. DANIEL RAGLAND ,
COLLEEN M. BRENSINGER ,
WARREN B. BILKER ,
EBERHARD A. DEISENHAMMER  and
MARGARETE DELAZER
ELISABETH M. WEISS
Affiliation:
Department of General Psychiatry, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
J. DANIEL RAGLAND
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Brain Behavior Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
COLLEEN M. BRENSINGER
Affiliation:
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
WARREN B. BILKER
Affiliation:
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
EBERHARD A. DEISENHAMMER
Affiliation:
Department of General Psychiatry, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
MARGARETE DELAZER
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sex differences in executive speech tasks, favoring women, have been noted in behavioral studies and functional imaging studies. In the present study, the clustering and switching components of semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tests were examined in 40 healthy men and 40 healthy women. Possible sex differences in the influence of cognitive factors such as speed of information processing, word knowledge, and/or verbal long-term memory on these verbal fluency factors were also assessed. The results showed that women switched more often between categories in the phonemic fluency test, whereas men showed a trend toward a larger cluster size leading to a smaller total number of words generated. Additionally, higher performance on the Digit Symbol test was associated with better performance on the semantic and phonemic verbal fluency test in men, whereas in women, better memory performance was associated with better performance on these verbal fluency tests. Our data indicate that men and women are using different processing strategies for phonemic verbal fluency tests to optimize verbal fluency task performance. In the current study, women adopted a more successful strategy of balancing clustering and switching in the phonemic fluency task. (JINS, 2006, 12, 502–509.)

Keywords

Word generationLanguageSemantic fluencyPhonemic fluencyGender differencesNeuropsychological
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , July 2006 , pp. 502 - 509
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bilker, W.B., Brensinger, C., & Gur, R.C. (2004). A two factor ANOVA-like test for correlated correlations: CORANOVA. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39, 565–594.Google Scholar
Bolla, K.I., Lindgren, K.N., Bonaccorsy, C., & Bleecker, M.L. (1990). Predictors of verbal fluency (FAS) in the healthy elderly. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 623–628.Google Scholar
Bryan, J. & Luszcz, M.A. (2000). Measurement of executive function: Considerations for detecting adult age differences. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 40–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, J., Luszcz, M.A., & Crawford, J.R. (1997). Verbal knowledge and speed of information processing as mediators of age differences in verbal fluency performance among older adults. Psychology and Aging, 12, 473–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capitani, E., Laiacona, M., & Barbarotto, R. (1999). Gender affects word retrieval of certain categories in semantic fluency tasks. Cortex, 35, 273–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capitani, E., Laiacona, M., & Basso, A. (1998). Phonetically cued word-fluency, gender differences and aging: A reappraisal. Cortex, 34, 779–783.Google Scholar
Cauthen, N.R. (1978). Verbal fluency: Normative data. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 34, 126–129.3.0.CO;2-6>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M.J. & Stanczak, D.E. (2000). On the reliability, validity, and cognitive structure of the Thurstone Word Fluency Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 15, 267–279.Google Scholar
Crossley, M., D'Arcy, C., & Rawson, N.S. (1997). Letter and category fluency in community-dwelling Canadian seniors: A comparison of normal participants to those with dementia of the Alzheimer or vascular type. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 19, 52–62.Google Scholar
Curtis, V.A., Bullmore, E.T., Brammer, M.J., Wright, I.C., Williams, S.C., Morris, R.G., Sharma, T.S., Murray, R.M., & McGuire, P.K. (1998). Attenuated frontal activation during a verbal fluency task in patients with schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155, 1056–1063.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost, J.A., Binder, J.R., Springer, J.A., Hammeke, T.A., Bellgowan, P.S., Rao, S.M., & Cox, R.W. (1999). Language processing is strongly left lateralized in both sexes. Evidence from functional MRI. Brain, 122(Pt 2), 199–208.Google Scholar
Harshman, R.A. (1985). Review of laterality: Functional asymmetry in the intact brain. Canadian Psychology, 26, 231–235.Google Scholar
Hiscock, M., Inch, R., Hawryluk, J., Lyon, P.J., & Perachio, N. (1999). Is there a sex difference in human laterality? III. An exhaustive survey of tactile laterality studies from six neuropsychology journals. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 21, 17–28.Google Scholar
Hyde, J. & Linn, M. (1988). Gender differences in verbal ability: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglis, J. & Lawson, J.S. (1981). Sex differences in the effects of unilateral brain damage on intelligence. Science, 212, 693–695.Google Scholar
Kansaku, K. & Kitazawa, S. (2001). Imaging studies on sex differences in the lateralization of language. Neuroscience Research, 41, 333–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kempler, D., Teng, E.L., Dick, M., Taussig, I.M., & Davis, D.S. (1998). The effects of age, education, and ethnicity on verbal fluency. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 531–538.Google Scholar
Kimura, D. (1992). Sex differences in the brain. Science America, 267, 118–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, D. (1996). Sex, sexual orientation and sex hormones influence human cognitive function. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 6, 259–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosmidis, M.H., Bozikas, V.P., Vlahou, C.H., Kiosseoglou, G., Giaglis, G., & Karavatos, A. (2005). Verbal fluency in institutionalized patients with schizophrenia: Age-related performance decline. Psychiatry Research, 134, 233–240.Google Scholar
Kosmidis, M.H., Vlahou, C.H., Panagiotaki, P., & Kiosseoglou, G. (2004). The verbal fluency task in the Greek population: Normative data, and clustering and switching strategies. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 164–172.Google Scholar
Leggio, M.G., Silveri, M.C., Petrosini, L., & Molinari, M. (2000). Phonological grouping is specifically affected in cerebellar patients: A verbal fluency study. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 69, 102–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehrl, S. (1989). Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz-Intelligenztest- MWT-B. Erlangen: Perimed.
Martin, A. & Fedio, P. (1983). Word production and comprehension in Alzheimer's disease: The breakdown of semantic knowledge. Brain and Language, 19, 124–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, A., Wiggs, C.L., Lalonde, F., & Mack, C. (1994). Word retrieval to letter and semantic cues: A double dissociation in normal subjects using interference tasks. Neuropsychologia, 32, 1487–1494.Google Scholar
McGlone, J. (1977). Sex differences in the cerebral organization of verbal functions in patients with unilateral brain lesions. Brain, 100, 775–793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, E. (1984). Verbal fluency as a function of a measure of verbal intelligence and in relation to different types of cerebral pathology. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23(Pt 1), 53–57.Google Scholar
Moelter, S.T., Hill, S.K., Ragland, J.D., Lunardelli, A., Gur, R.C., Gur, R.E., & Moberg, P.J. (2001). Controlled and automatic processing during animal word list generation in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 15, 502–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mummery, C.J., Patterson, K., Hodges, J.R., & Wise, R.J. (1996). Generating ‘tiger’ as an animal name or a word beginning with T: Differences in brain activation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London—Series B: Biological Science, 263, 989–995.Google Scholar
Oldfield, R.C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9, 97–113.Google Scholar
Paulesu, E., Goldacre, B., Scifo, P., Cappa, S.F., Gilardi, M.C., Castiglioni, I., Perani, D., & Fazio, F. (1997). Functional heterogeneity of left inferior frontal cortex as revealed by fMRI. Neuroreport, 8, 2011–2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pendleton, M.G., Heaton, R.K., Lehman, R.A., & Hulihan, D. (1982). Diagnostic utility of the Thurstone Word Fluency Test in neuropsychological evaluations. Journal of Clinical Neuropsychology, 4, 307–317.Google Scholar
Perlmuter, L.C., Tun, P., Sizer, N., McGlinchey, R.E., & Nathan, D.M. (1987). Age and diabetes related changes in verbal fluency. Experimental Aging Research, 13, 9–14.Google Scholar
Phelps, E.A., Hyder, F., Blamire, A.M., & Shulman, R.G. (1997). FMRI of the prefrontal cortex during overt verbal fluency. Neuroreport, 8, 561–565.Google Scholar
Pujol, J., Vendrell, P., Deus, J., Kulisevsky, J., Marti-Vilalta, J.L., Garcia, C., Junque, C., & Capdevila, A. (1996). Frontal lobe activation during word generation studied by functional MRI. Acta Neurologica Scandinavia, 93, 403–410.Google Scholar
Rende, B., Ramsberger, G., & Miyake, A. (2002). Commonalities and differences in the working memory components underlying letter and category fluency tasks: A dual-task investigation. Neuropsychology, 16, 309–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rich, J.B., Troyer, A.K., Bylsma, F.W., & Brandt, J. (1999). Longitudinal analysis of phonemic clustering and switching during word-list generation in Huntington's disease. Neuropsychology, 13, 525–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robert, P.H., Lafont, V., Medecin, I., Berthet, L., Thauby, S., Baudu, C., & Darcourt, G. (1998). Clustering and switching strategies in verbal fluency tasks: Comparison between schizophrenics and healthy adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 539–546.Google Scholar
Rosser, A. & Hodges, J.R. (1994). Initial letter and semantic category fluency in Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and progressive supranuclear palsy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 57, 1389–1394.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruff, R.M., Light, R.H., Parker, S.B., & Levin, H.S. (1997). The psychological construct of word fluency. Brain and Language, 57, 394–405.Google Scholar
Salthouse, T.A. (1993). Speed and knowledge as determinants of adult age differences in verbal tasks. Journal of Gerontology, 48, 29–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlosser, R., Hutchinson, M., Joseffer, S., Rusinek, H., Saarimaki, A., Stevenson, J., Dewey, S.L., & Brodie, J.D. (1998). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity in a verbal fluency task. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 64, 492–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaywitz, B.A., Shaywitz, S.E., Pugh, K.R., Constable, R.T., Skudlarski, P., Fulbright, R.K., Bronen, R.A., Fletcher, J.M., Shankweiler, D.P., & Katz, L. (1995). Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language. Nature, 373, 607–609.Google Scholar
Spreen, O. & Benton, A. (1977). Comprehensive examination for aphasia (NCCEA) (revised edition). Victory: Neuropsychology Laboratory.
Strauss, E., Wada, J., & Goldwater, B. (1992). Sex differences in interhemispheric reorganization of speech. Neuropsychologia, 30, 353–359.Google Scholar
Tombaugh, T.N., Kozak, J., & Rees, L. (1999). Normative data stratified by age and education for two measures of verbal fluency: FAS and animal naming. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 14, 167–177.Google Scholar
Troster, A.I., Fields, J.A., Testa, J.A., Paul, R.H., Blanco, C.R., Hames, K.A., Salmon, D.P., & Beatty, W.W. (1998). Cortical and subcortical influences on clustering and switching in the performance of verbal fluency tasks. Neuropsychologia, 36, 295–304.Google Scholar
Troyer, A.K. (2000). Normative data for clustering and switching on verbal fluency tasks. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 370–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troyer, A.K., Moscovitch, M., & Winocur, G. (1997). Clustering and switching as two components of verbal fluency: Evidence from younger and older healthy adults. Neuropsychology, 11, 138–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troyer, A.K., Moscovitch, M., Winocur, G., Alexander, M.P., & Stuss, D. (1998a). Clustering and switching on verbal fluency: The effects of focal frontal- and temporal-lobe lesions. Neuropsychologia, 36, 499–504.Google Scholar
Troyer, A.K., Moscovitch, M., Winocur, G., Leach, L., & Freedman, M. (1998b). Clustering and switching on verbal fluency tests in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 4, 137–143.Google Scholar
Warrington, E.K. (1984). Recognition memory test. Windsor: NFER-NELSON.
Wechsler, D. (1981). WAIS-R manual. New York: Psychological Corporation.
Weiss, E., Kemmler, G., Deisenhammer, E.A., Fleischhacker, W.W., & Delazer, M. (2003a). Sex differences in cognitive functions. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 863–875.Google Scholar
Weiss, E., Siedentopf, C.M., Hofer, A., Deisenhammer, E.A., Hoptman, M.J., Kremser, C., Golaszewski, S., Felber, S., Fleischhacker, W.W., & Delazer, M. (2003b). Brain activation pattern during a verbal fluency test in healthy male and female volunteers: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Neuroscience Letter, 352, 191–194Google Scholar
Wilson, B.A., Cockburn, J., & Baddeley, A. (1985). The Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test. Gaylord: Reading England: Thames Valley Test Co.
Yetkin, F.Z., Hammeke, T.A., Swanson, S.J., Morris, G.L., Mueller, W.M., McAuliffe, T.L., & Haughton, V.M. (1995). A comparison of functional MR activation patterns during silent and audible language tasks. AJNR American Journal of Neuroradiology, 16, 1087–1092.Google Scholar
Yurgelun-Todd, D.A., Waternaux, C.M., Cohen, B.M., Gruber, S.A., English, C.D., & Renshaw, P.F. (1996). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of schizophrenic patients and comparison subjects during word production. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 200–205.Google Scholar