Generative naming in Parkinson disease patients

The generative naming ability (verbal fluency) of 88 idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) patients was evaluated and compared to that of 21 Alzheimer disease (AD) patients and 43 normal age- and education-matched normal control subjects. The PD patients were classified according to whether they scored within the normal range on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a score of 27 or higher, or in the abnormal range, a score of 26 or lower. Semantic and letter generative naming tasks were administered to assess verbal fluency. Results of the study provide evidence that letter category naming is inherently more difficult than semantic category naming; that age significantly affects generative naming; that PD patients with normal MMSE scores were significantly inferior to normal control subjects in generative naming even after the effects of age and mental status are controlled; that PD patients with non-normal MMSE scores performed like AD patients after controlling for the effects of age and mental status; and, that ideational perseveration is the most common type of error response for all subject groups.