The update of semantic memories in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Normative Data for the Famous People Fluency Test in the Adult French-Quebec Population and Validation Study in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

OBJECTIVE

The production of words in verbal fluency tests relies heavily on executive functions and linguistic abilities. New tests such as the famous people fluency test can also be useful in clinical practice and research. This test, in which participants are asked to name so many famous people, has the potential to distinguish healthy individuals from participants with neurological disorders such as mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease.

METHOD

The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric validity of the test (Study 1) and to provide normative data in the adult population of French Quebec for the famous people fluency test (Study 2).

RESULTS

The results of the normative study, derived from a sample of 378 healthy individuals between the ages of 50 and 92, showed that age and educational level significantly influence performance on the test. Therefore, percentile ranks were calculated for performance on the famous people fluency test, stratified for these two variables. The results of Study 2 showed that the test differentiated the performance of healthy participants from the performance of participants with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease. The results also showed that the famous people fluency test has adequate convergent validity, established with a semantic fluency test, and that the results showed good stability over time (test-retest validity).

CONCLUSION

Norms and psychometric data for the famous people fluency test will improve the ability of clinicians and researchers to better recognize executive and language impairments associated with pathological conditions.

The Distinctive Pattern of Declarative Memories in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Further Evidence of Episodic Memory Constraints

This study examines declarative memory retrieval in ASD depending on the availability and access to stored conceptual knowledge. Fifteen autistic participants and a matched control group of 18 typically-developed (TD) volunteers completed a Remember-Know paradigm manipulated by encoding-type (categorical, perceptual) and item-typicality (high-typical, low-typical). The autistic group showed worse and slower recognition and less recollection but equivalent familiarity-based memories compared to TDs. Notably, low-typical items did not improve their memories as they did for TDs, likely due to difficulties in matching low-fit information to the stored schema. Results suggest that memory decline in ASD may derive from the episodic system and its dynamics with the semantic system. These findings may inform interventional strategies for enhancing learning abilities in ASD.