Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency in Blinds

  • Published:
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A person who has suffered the total loss of a sensory system has, indirectly, suffered a brain lesion. Semantic and phonologic verbal fluency are used for evaluation of executive function and language. The aim of this study is evaluation and comparison of phonemic and semantic verbal fluency in acquired blinds. We compare 137 blinds and 124 sighted people in verbal fluency task. The tasks were phonemic and semantic verbal fluency test that subjects should be generate as many word as possible in a limited amount of time for a given letter (Phonemic fluency) or a given category (Semantic fluency). Independent T Test was used to comparing blind with sighted. Findings show significant difference between two groups so that that sighted subjects have higher performance in semantic verbal fluency task (p = 0.000). Comparing sighted and blind subjects in phonemic verbal fluency task shows performance in sighted subjects (p = 0.000). Based on this study blinds have lower performance in semantic and phonemic verbal fluency task as a executive function of frontal lobe.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amedi A., Floel A., Knecht S., Zohary E., Cohen L. G. (2004) Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the occipital pole interferes with verbal processing in blind subjects. Nature Neuroscience 7: 1266–1270

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Amedi A., Raz N., Pianka P., Malach R., Zohary E. (2003) Early ‘visual’ cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind. Nature Neuroscience 6: 758–766

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burton H., Snyder A. Z., Conturo T. E., Akbudak E., Ollinger J. M., Raichle M. E. (2002) Adaptive changes in early and late blind: A fMRI study of Braille reading. Journal of Neurophysiology 87: 589–607

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burton H. (2003) Visual cortex activity in early and late blind people. Journal of Neuroscience 23: 4005–4011

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Busse A. (2002) Adaptation of dementia screening for vision-impaired older persons: Administration of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE). Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 55: 909–915

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabeza R., Nyberg L. (2000) Imaging cognition II: An empirical review of 275 PET and fMRI studies. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 12: 1–47

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky N. (1980) Rules and Representations. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickins D. W., Singh K. D., Roberts N., Burns P., Downes J. J., Jimmieson P., Bentall R. P. (2001) An fMRI study of stimulus equivalence. NeuroReport 12: 405–411

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Doucet M. E., Guillemot J. P., Lassonde M., Gagne J. P., Leclerc C., Lepore F. (2005) Blind subjects process auditory spectral cues more efficiently than sighted individuals. Experimental Brain Research 160: 194–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaillard W. D., Hertz-Pannier L., Mott S. H., Barnett A. S., LeBihan D., Theodore W. H. (2000) Functional anatomy of cognitive development: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults. Neurology 54: 180–185

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldreich D., Kanics I. M. (2003) Tactile acuity is enhanced in blindness. Journal of Neuroscience 23: 3439–3445

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gougoux F., Zatorre R. J., Lassonde M., Voss P., Lepore F. (2005) A functional neuroimaging study of sound localization: Visual cortex activity performance in early blind individuals. PLoS Biology 3: 27

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gougoux F., Lepore F., Lassonde M., Voss P., Zatorre R. J., Belin P (2004) Neuropsychology: Pitch discrimination in the early blind. Nature 430: 309

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grant A. C., Thiagarajah M. C., Sathian K. (2000) Tactile perception in blind Braille readers: A psychophysical study of acuity and hyperacuity using gratings and dot patterns. Perception & Psychophysics 62: 301–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton R. H., Pascual-Leone A., Schlaug G. (2004) Absolute pitch in blind musicians. NeuroReport 15: 803–806

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hotting K., Röder B. (2004) Hearing cheats touch, but less in congenitally blind than in sighted individuals. Psychological Science 15: 60–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Korten A. E. (1997) A prospective study of cognitive function in the elderly. Psychological Medicine 27: 9191–9930

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kujala T., Alho K., Huotilainen M., Ilmoniemi R.J., Lehtokoski A., Leinonen A. et al (1997) Electrophysiological evidence for cross-modal plasticity in humans with early- and late-onset blindness. Psychophysiology 34: 213–216

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kujala, T., Alho, K., Kekoni, J., Hamalainen, H., Reinikainen K., Salonen O. (1995) Auditory and somatosensory event-related brain potentials in early blind humans. Experimental Brain Research 104: 519–526

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leinonen A., Rinne T., Salonen O., Sinkkonen J., Standertskjold-Nordenstam C. G., Näätänen R. (1997) Electrophysiological evidence for cross-modal plasticity in humans with early and late-onset blindness. Psychophysiology 34: 213–216

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lezak M. D. (1995) Neuropsychological Assessment 3 edn. New York, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Linn R. T. (1995) The dpreclinical caseT of probable Alzheimer’s disease A-13 year prospective study of the Framingham cohort. Archives of Neurology 52: 485–490

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liotti M., Ryder K., Woldorff M.G. (1998) Auditory attention in the congenitally blind: Where, when and what gets reorganized?. NeuroReport 9: 1007–1012

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin A., Wiggs C. L., Lalonde F., Mack C. (1994) Word retrieval to letter and semantic sues: A double association in normal subjects using interference tasks. Neuropsychologia 32: 1487–1494

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Merabet L., Rizzo J., Amedi A., Somers D., Pascual-Leone A. (2005) What blindness can tell us about seeing again: Merging neuroplasticity and neuroprostheses. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6: 71–77

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muchnik C., Efrati M., Nemeth E., Malin M., Hildesheimer M. (1991) Central auditory skills in blind and sighted subjects. Scandinavian Audiology 20: 19–23

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Noppeney U., Friston K. J., Price C. J. (2003) Effects of visual deprivation on the organization of the semantic system. Brain 126: 1620–1627

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Press, D. Z., Casement, M. D., Moo, L. R., & Alsop, D. C. (2004). Imaging phonological and semantic networks with fMRI. Soc. Neurosci. Abstr. Viewer/Itinerary Planner. No. 80.13.

  • Ravnkilde B., Videbech P., Rosenberg R., Gjedde A., Gade A. (2002) Putative tests of frontal lobe function: A PET-study of brain activation during Stroop’s test and verbal fluency. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 24: 534–547

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reischies F. M., Geiselmann B. (1997) Age-related cognitive decline and vision impairment affecting the detection of dementia syndrome in old age. British Journal of Psychiatry 171: 449–451

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riedel-Heller S.G., Busse A., Anfermeyer M.C. (1997) Are cognitively impaired individuals adequately represented in community surveys? Recruitment challenges and strategies to facilitate participation in community surveys of older adults. A review. European Journal of Epidemiology, 16: 827–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roder B., Stock O., Bien S., Neville H., Rosler F. (2002) Speech processing activates visual cortex in congenitally blind humans. The European Journal of Neuroscience 16: 930–936

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Röder B., Rösler F., Hennighausen E., Nacker F. (1996) Event related potentials during auditory and somatosensory discrimination in sighted and blind human subjects. Brain Research Cognitive Brain Research 4: 77–93

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Röder B., Rösler F., Neville H. J. (1999a) Effects of interstimulus interval on auditory event-related potentials in congenitally blind and normally sighted humans. Neuroscience letters 264: 53–56

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Röder B., Rösler F., Spence C. (2004) Early vision impairs tactile perception in the blind. Current Biology 14: 121–124

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Röder B., Teder-Salejarvi W., Sterr A., Rösler F., Hillyard S. A., Neville H. J. (1999b) Improved auditory spatial tuning in blind humans. Nature 400: 162–166

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sterr A., Muller M. M., Elbert T., Rockstroh B., Pantev C., Taub E. (1998) Perceptual correlates of changes in cortical representation of fingers in blind multifinger Braille readers. Journal of Neuroscience 18: 4417–4423

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens A. A., Weaver K. (2005) Auditory perceptual consolidation in early-onset blindness. Neuropsychologia 43: 1901–1910

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Theoret H., Merabet L., Pascual-Leone A. (2004) Behavioral and neuroplastic changes in the blind: Evidence for functionally relevant cross-modal interactions. Journal of Physiology, Paris 98(1-3): 221–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Uhlmann R. F., Pearlman R. A. (1991) Perceived quality of life and preferences for life-sustaining treatment in older adults. Archives of Internal Medicine 151: 495–497

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Boven R., Hamilton R., Kaufman T., Keenan J. P., Pascual-Leone A. (2000) Tactile spatial resolution in blind Braille readers. Neurology 54: 2030–2046

    Google Scholar 

  • Voss P., Lassonde M., Gougoux F., Fortin M., Guillemot J. P., Lepore F. (2004) Early- and late-onset blind individuals show supra-normal auditory abilities in far-space. Current Biology 14: 1734–1738

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Warren D. H. (1994) Blindness and children: An individual differences approach. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yabe T., Kaga K. (2005) Sound lateralization test in adolescent blind individuals. NeuroReport 16: 939–942

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive neuroscience, Psychology Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

    Vahid Nejati

  2. Raftar Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Tehran, Iran

    Anoosh Asadi

Authors
  1. Vahid Nejati
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anoosh Asadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vahid Nejati.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nejati, V., Asadi, A. Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency in Blinds. J Psycholinguist Res 39, 235–242 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-009-9136-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-009-9136-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation