GENERATIVE NAMING IN PARKINSON DISEASE PATIENTS

The generative naming ability (verbal fluency) of 88 idiopathic Parkin son disease (PD) patients was evaluated and compared to that of 21 Alz heimer 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 E xamination (MMSE), a score of 27 or higher, or in the abnormal range, a score of 26 or lower. Semantic and letter generative naming tasks we re administered to assess verbal fluency. Results of the study provide evidence that letter category naming is inherently more difficult tha n semantic category naming; that age significantly affects generative naming; that PD patients with normal MMSE scores were significantly in ferior 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 f or the effects of age and mental status; and, that ideational persever ation is the most common type of error response for all subject groups .