Exploring Verbal Fluency Strategies among Individuals with Normal Cognition, Amnestic and Non-Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The present study explored the utilization of verbal fluency (VF) cognitive strategies, including clustering, switching, intrusions, and perseverations, within both semantic (SVF) and phonemic (PVF) conditions, across a continuum of neurocognitive decline, spanning from normal cognitive ageing (NC) to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and its subtypes, amnestic (aMCI) and non-amnestic (naMCI), as well as AD. Materials and Methods: The study sample was derived from the Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD) cohort. The sample included 1607 NC individuals, 146 with aMCI (46 single-domain and 100 multi-domain), 92 with naMCI (41 single-domain and 51 multi-domain), and 79 with AD. Statistical analyses, adjusting for sex, age, and education, employed multivariate general linear models to probe differences among these groups. Results: Results showed that AD patients exhibited poorer performance in switching in both VF tasks and SVF clustering compared to NC. Similarly, the aMCI group performed worse than the NC in switching and clustering in both tasks, with aMCI performing similarly to AD, except for SVF switching. In contrast, the naMCI subgroup performed similarly to those with NC across most strategies, surpassing AD patients. Notably, the aMCI subgroup’s poor performance in SVF switching was mainly due to the subpar performance of the multi-domain aMCI subgroup. This subgroup was outperformed in switching in both VF tasks by the single-domain naMCI, who also performed better than the multi-domain naMCI in SVF switching. No significant differences emerged in terms of perseverations and intrusions. Conclusions: Overall, these findings suggest a continuum of declining switching ability in the SVF task, with NC surpassing both aMCI and AD, and aMCI outperforming those with AD. The challenges in SVF switching suggest executive function impairment associated with multi-domain MCI, particularly driven by the multi-domain aMCI.