The Basis and Applications of the Action Fluency and Action Naming Tasks

Beber, Bárbara Costa; Chaves, Márcia L.F.

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642014DN81000008

ABSTRACT

The Action Fluency (AF) and Action Naming (AN) are different tasks involving verb generation. Evidence indicates that verb tasks yield different information from that obtained with nouns. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the information available in the scientific literature on the mechanism and clinical application of these tasks. Methods: We carried out a systematic review of the literature and the findings were presented according to clinical studies and neuroimaging studies, and to the task in question. Results: The literature contained a variety of relevant studies with different objectives, methodologies and populations. After the analysis (exclusion criteria) of the studies obtained by the search terms, only 40 studies were included in this review. Conclusion: It was possible to conclude that AF and AN involve different brain processes, and although recruiting frontal areas and circuits, other areas are also critical. These tasks may be useful for differentiating Primary Progressive Aphasias; AF might represent a new measure of executive function; finally, both these tests can be used to provide a better understanding of cognitive processes and certain diseases.

Key words:
language; cognition; neuropsychological tests; neuropsychology

RESUMO

A Fluência de Ações (FA) e a Nomeação de Ações (NA) são diferentes tarefas que exigem geração de verbos. Evidências indicam que tarefas que utilizam verbos fornecem informações diferentes daquelas que utilizam substantivos. Objetivo: Este estudo objetivou analisar a informação disponível na literatura científica sobre mecanismos e aplicações clínicas destas tarefas. Métodos: Foi realizada uma revisão de literatura sistemática e os achados foram apresentados de acordo com estudos clínicos e de neuroimagem, e de acordo com o tipo de tarefa em questão. Resultados: A literatura apresentou estudos diversificados sobre o assunto, com diferentes objetivos, metodologias e populações. Após análise dos dados (com critérios de exclusão) dos estudos obtidos na busca, apenas 40 estudos foram incluídos nesta revisão. Conclusão: Foi possível concluir que FA e NA envolvem diferentes áreas cerebrais, embora envolvam áreas e circuitos frontais, outras áreas também são críticas. Tais tarefas podem ser importantes na diferenciação das Afasias Progressivas Primárias; a FA pode ser uma nova medida de funções executivas; e, finalmente, ambos podem ser usados para permitir um melhor entendimento de processos cognitivos e de determinadas doenças.

Palavras-chave:
linguagem; cognição; testes neuropsicológicos; neuropsicologia

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REFERENCES

¹
Hillis AE, Tuffiash E, Wityk RJ, Barker PB. Regions of neural dysfunction associated with impaired naming of actions and objects in acute stroke. Cogn Neuropsychol 2002;19:523-534.
²
Shapiro KA, Mottaghy FM, Schiller NO, et al. Dissociating neural correlates for nouns and verbs. NeuroImage 2005;24:1058-1067.
³
Shapiro KA, Moo LR, Caramazza A. Cortical signatures of noun and verb production. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103:1644-1649.
⁴
Finocchiaro C, Basso G, Giovenzana A, Caramazza A. Morphological complexity reveals verb-specific prefrontal engagement. J Neurolinguistics 2010;23:553-563.
⁵
Miozzo A, Soardi M, Cappa SF. Pure anomia with spared action naming due to a left temporal lesion. Neuropsychologia 1994;32:1101-1109.
⁶
Robinson KM, Grossman M, White-Devine T, D'Esposito M. Category-specific difficulty naming with verbs in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 1996;47:178-182.
⁷
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Koller WC, Tröster AI. Lexical, semantic, and action verbal fluency in Parkinson's disease with and without dementia. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1999; 21:435-443.
⁸
Hillis AE, Oh S, Ken L. Deterioration of naming nouns versus verbs in primary progressive aphasia. Ann. Neurol 2004;55:268-275.
⁹
Ostberg P, Fernaeus S-E, Hellström K, Bogdanovic N, Wahlund LO. Impaired verb fluency: a sign of mild cognitive impairment. Brain Lang 2005;95:273-279.
¹⁰
Nutter-Upham KE, Saykin AJ, Rabin LA, et al. Verbal fluency performance in amnestic MCI and older adults with cognitive complaints. Arch Clin Neuropsychol Off J Natl Acad Neuropsychol 2008;23:229-241.
¹¹
Gainotti G, Ferraccioli M, Vita MG, Marra C. Patterns of neuropsychological impairment in MCI patients with small subcortical infarcts or hippocampal atrophy. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2008;14:611-619.
¹²
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Tröster AI. Action (verb naming) fluency as an executive function measure: convergent and divergent evidence of validity. Neuropsychologia 1999;37:1499-1503.
¹³
Druks J, Masterson J, Kopelman M, Clare L, Rose A, Rai G. Is action naming better preserved (than object naming) in Alzheimer's disease and why should we ask? Brain Lang 2006;98:332-340.
¹⁴
Cotelli M, Borroni B, Manenti R, et al. Action and object naming in Parkinson's disease without dementia. Eur J Neurol Off J Eur Fed Neurol Soc 2007;14:632-637.
¹⁵
Woods SP, Scott JC, Sires DA, et al. Action (verb) fluency: test-retest reliability, normative standards, and construct validity. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2005;11:408-415.
¹⁶
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Tröster AI. Action verbal fluency normative data for the elderly. Brain Lang 2004;89:580-583.
¹⁷
Casals-Coll M, Sánchez-Benavides G, Quintana M, et al. Spanish normative studies in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project): norms for verbal fluency tests. Neurologia 2013;28:33-40.
¹⁸
Stokholm J, Jørgensen K, Vogel A. Performances on five verbal fluency tests in a healthy, elderly Danish sample. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2013;20:22-33.
¹⁹
McDowd J, Hoffman L, Rozek E, et al. Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychology 2011;25:210-225.
²⁰
Delbeuck X, Debachy B, Pasquier F, Moroni C. Action and noun fluency testing to distinguish between Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2013;35:259-268.
²¹
Davis C, Heidler-Gary J, Gottesman RF, et al. Action versus animal naming fluency in subcortical dementia, frontal dementias, and Alzheimer's disease. Neurocase 2010;16:259-266.
²²
Signorini M, Volpato C. Action fluency in Parkinson's disease: a follow-up study. Mov Disord Off J Mov Disord Soc 2006;21:467-472.
²³
De Nóbrega E, Nieto A, Barroso J, Montón F. Differential impairment in semantic, phonemic, and action fluency performance in Friedreich's ataxia: possible evidence of prefrontal dysfunction. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2007;13:944-952.
²⁴
Badcock JC, Dragovic M, Garrett C, Jablensky A. Action (verb) fluency in schizophrenia: Getting a grip on odd speech. Schizophr Res 2011;126:138-143.
²⁵
Woods SP, Weinborn M, Posada C, O'Grady J. Preliminary evidence for impaired rapid verb generation in schizophrenia. Brain Lang 2007; 102:46-51.
²⁶
Woods SP, Morgan EE, Dawson M, Cobb Scott J, Grant I. HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) Group. Action (verb) fluency predicts dependence in instrumental activities of daily living in persons infected with HIV-1. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2006;28:1030-1042.
²⁷
Woods SP, Carey CL, Tröster AI, Grant I, HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) Group. Action (verb) generation in HIV-1 infection. Neuropsychologia 2005;43:1144-1151.
²⁸
Woods SP, Iudicello JE, Dawson MS, et al. HIV-associated deficits in action (verb) generation may reflect astrocytosis. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2010;32:522-527.
²⁹
Ramsay CB, Nicholas M, Au R, Obler LK, Albert ML. Verb naming in normal aging. Appl Neuropsychol 1999;6:57-67.
³⁰
Cotelli M, Borroni B, Manenti R, et al. Action and object naming in frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration. Neuropsychology 2006;20:558-565.
³¹
Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Menéndez M, Ribacoba R, Cuetos F. Action naming is impaired in Parkinson disease patients. Neuropsychologia 2009;47:3271-3274.
³²
Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Cuetos F, Herrera E, Menéndez M, Ribacoba R. Cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease without dementia. Mov Disord Off J Mov Disord Soc 2010;25:2136-2141.
³³
Herrera E, Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Cuetos F. The effect of motion content in action naming by Parkinson's disease patients. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2012;48:900-904.
³⁴
Nieto A, Correia R, de Nóbrega E, Montón F, Hess S, Barroso J. Cognition in Friedreich ataxia. Cerebellum 2012;11:834-844.
³⁵
Jonkers R, Bastiaanse R. Action naming in anomic aphasic speakers: effects of instrumentality and name relation. Brain Lang 2007;102: 262-272.
³⁶
Luzzatti C, Raggi R, Zonca G, Pistarini C, Contardi A, Pinna G-D. Verb-noun double dissociation in aphasic lexical impairments: the role of word frequency and imageability. Brain Lang 2002;81:432-444.
³⁷
Lu LH, Crosson B, Nadeau SE, et al. Category-specific naming deficits for objects and actions: semantic attribute and grammatical role hypotheses. Neuropsychologia 2002;40:1608-1621.
³⁸
Sanjuán A, Bustamante J-C, Forn C, et al. Comparison of two fMRI tasks for the evaluation of the expressive language function. Neuroradiology 2010;52:407-415.
³⁹
Ostberg P, Crinelli RM, Danielsson R, Wahlund L-O, Bogdanovic N, Fernaeus S-E. A temporal lobe factor in verb fluency. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2007;43:607-615.
⁴⁰
Clark DG, Wadley VG, Kapur P, et al. Lexical factors and cerebral regions influencing verbal fluency performance in MCI. Neuropsychologia 2014;54:98-111.
⁴¹
Piras F, Marangolo P. Noun-verb naming in aphasia: a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping study. Neuroreport 2007;18:1455-1458.
⁴²
Piras F, Marangolo P. When 'Crack walnuts' lies in different brain regions: evidence from a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping study. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2010;16:433-442.
⁴³
Libon DJ, McMillan C, Avants B, et al. Deficits in concept formation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neuropsychology 2012;26:422-429.
⁴⁴
Daniele A, Barbier A, Di Giuda D, et al. Selective impairment of action-verb naming and comprehension in progressive supranuclear palsy. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2013;49:948-960.
⁴⁵
Breier JI, Papanicolaou AC. Spatiotemporal Patterns of Brain Activation During an Action Naming Task Using Magnetoencephalography: J Clin Neurophysiol 2008;25:7-12.
⁴⁶
SOROS P, CORNELISSEN K, LAINE M, SALMELIN R. NAMING ACTIONS AND OBJECTS: CORTICAL DYNAMICS IN HEALTHY ADULTS AND IN AN ANOMIC PATIENT WITH A DISSOCIATION IN ACTION/OBJECT NAMING. NEUROIMAGE 2003;19:1787-1801.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jan-Mar 2014

History

Received
10 Nov 2013
Accepted
20 Jan 2014

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] ¹
Hillis AE, Tuffiash E, Wityk RJ, Barker PB. Regions of neural dysfunction associated with impaired naming of actions and objects in acute stroke. Cogn Neuropsychol 2002;19:523-534.

[2] ²
Shapiro KA, Mottaghy FM, Schiller NO, et al. Dissociating neural correlates for nouns and verbs. NeuroImage 2005;24:1058-1067.

[3] ³
Shapiro KA, Moo LR, Caramazza A. Cortical signatures of noun and verb production. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006;103:1644-1649.

[4] ⁴
Finocchiaro C, Basso G, Giovenzana A, Caramazza A. Morphological complexity reveals verb-specific prefrontal engagement. J Neurolinguistics 2010;23:553-563.

[5] ⁵
Miozzo A, Soardi M, Cappa SF. Pure anomia with spared action naming due to a left temporal lesion. Neuropsychologia 1994;32:1101-1109.

[6] ⁶
Robinson KM, Grossman M, White-Devine T, D'Esposito M. Category-specific difficulty naming with verbs in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 1996;47:178-182.

[7] ⁷
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Koller WC, Tröster AI. Lexical, semantic, and action verbal fluency in Parkinson's disease with and without dementia. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1999; 21:435-443.

[8] ⁸
Hillis AE, Oh S, Ken L. Deterioration of naming nouns versus verbs in primary progressive aphasia. Ann. Neurol 2004;55:268-275.

[9] ⁹
Ostberg P, Fernaeus S-E, Hellström K, Bogdanovic N, Wahlund LO. Impaired verb fluency: a sign of mild cognitive impairment. Brain Lang 2005;95:273-279.

[10] ¹⁰
Nutter-Upham KE, Saykin AJ, Rabin LA, et al. Verbal fluency performance in amnestic MCI and older adults with cognitive complaints. Arch Clin Neuropsychol Off J Natl Acad Neuropsychol 2008;23:229-241.

[11] ¹¹
Gainotti G, Ferraccioli M, Vita MG, Marra C. Patterns of neuropsychological impairment in MCI patients with small subcortical infarcts or hippocampal atrophy. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2008;14:611-619.

[12] ¹²
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Tröster AI. Action (verb naming) fluency as an executive function measure: convergent and divergent evidence of validity. Neuropsychologia 1999;37:1499-1503.

[13] ¹³
Druks J, Masterson J, Kopelman M, Clare L, Rose A, Rai G. Is action naming better preserved (than object naming) in Alzheimer's disease and why should we ask? Brain Lang 2006;98:332-340.

[14] ¹⁴
Cotelli M, Borroni B, Manenti R, et al. Action and object naming in Parkinson's disease without dementia. Eur J Neurol Off J Eur Fed Neurol Soc 2007;14:632-637.

[15] ¹⁵
Woods SP, Scott JC, Sires DA, et al. Action (verb) fluency: test-retest reliability, normative standards, and construct validity. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2005;11:408-415.

[16] ¹⁶
Piatt AL, Fields JA, Paolo AM, Tröster AI. Action verbal fluency normative data for the elderly. Brain Lang 2004;89:580-583.

[17] ¹⁷
Casals-Coll M, Sánchez-Benavides G, Quintana M, et al. Spanish normative studies in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project): norms for verbal fluency tests. Neurologia 2013;28:33-40.

[18] ¹⁸
Stokholm J, Jørgensen K, Vogel A. Performances on five verbal fluency tests in a healthy, elderly Danish sample. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2013;20:22-33.

[19] ¹⁹
McDowd J, Hoffman L, Rozek E, et al. Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychology 2011;25:210-225.

[20] ²⁰
Delbeuck X, Debachy B, Pasquier F, Moroni C. Action and noun fluency testing to distinguish between Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2013;35:259-268.

[21] ²¹
Davis C, Heidler-Gary J, Gottesman RF, et al. Action versus animal naming fluency in subcortical dementia, frontal dementias, and Alzheimer's disease. Neurocase 2010;16:259-266.

[22] ²²
Signorini M, Volpato C. Action fluency in Parkinson's disease: a follow-up study. Mov Disord Off J Mov Disord Soc 2006;21:467-472.

[23] ²³
De Nóbrega E, Nieto A, Barroso J, Montón F. Differential impairment in semantic, phonemic, and action fluency performance in Friedreich's ataxia: possible evidence of prefrontal dysfunction. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2007;13:944-952.

[24] ²⁴
Badcock JC, Dragovic M, Garrett C, Jablensky A. Action (verb) fluency in schizophrenia: Getting a grip on odd speech. Schizophr Res 2011;126:138-143.

[25] ²⁵
Woods SP, Weinborn M, Posada C, O'Grady J. Preliminary evidence for impaired rapid verb generation in schizophrenia. Brain Lang 2007; 102:46-51.

[26] ²⁶
Woods SP, Morgan EE, Dawson M, Cobb Scott J, Grant I. HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) Group. Action (verb) fluency predicts dependence in instrumental activities of daily living in persons infected with HIV-1. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2006;28:1030-1042.

[27] ²⁷
Woods SP, Carey CL, Tröster AI, Grant I, HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) Group. Action (verb) generation in HIV-1 infection. Neuropsychologia 2005;43:1144-1151.

[28] ²⁸
Woods SP, Iudicello JE, Dawson MS, et al. HIV-associated deficits in action (verb) generation may reflect astrocytosis. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2010;32:522-527.

[29] ²⁹
Ramsay CB, Nicholas M, Au R, Obler LK, Albert ML. Verb naming in normal aging. Appl Neuropsychol 1999;6:57-67.

[30] ³⁰
Cotelli M, Borroni B, Manenti R, et al. Action and object naming in frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration. Neuropsychology 2006;20:558-565.

[31] ³¹
Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Menéndez M, Ribacoba R, Cuetos F. Action naming is impaired in Parkinson disease patients. Neuropsychologia 2009;47:3271-3274.

[32] ³²
Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Cuetos F, Herrera E, Menéndez M, Ribacoba R. Cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease without dementia. Mov Disord Off J Mov Disord Soc 2010;25:2136-2141.

[33] ³³
Herrera E, Rodríguez-Ferreiro J, Cuetos F. The effect of motion content in action naming by Parkinson's disease patients. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2012;48:900-904.

[34] ³⁴
Nieto A, Correia R, de Nóbrega E, Montón F, Hess S, Barroso J. Cognition in Friedreich ataxia. Cerebellum 2012;11:834-844.

[35] ³⁵
Jonkers R, Bastiaanse R. Action naming in anomic aphasic speakers: effects of instrumentality and name relation. Brain Lang 2007;102: 262-272.

[36] ³⁶
Luzzatti C, Raggi R, Zonca G, Pistarini C, Contardi A, Pinna G-D. Verb-noun double dissociation in aphasic lexical impairments: the role of word frequency and imageability. Brain Lang 2002;81:432-444.

[37] ³⁷
Lu LH, Crosson B, Nadeau SE, et al. Category-specific naming deficits for objects and actions: semantic attribute and grammatical role hypotheses. Neuropsychologia 2002;40:1608-1621.

[38] ³⁸
Sanjuán A, Bustamante J-C, Forn C, et al. Comparison of two fMRI tasks for the evaluation of the expressive language function. Neuroradiology 2010;52:407-415.

[39] ³⁹
Ostberg P, Crinelli RM, Danielsson R, Wahlund L-O, Bogdanovic N, Fernaeus S-E. A temporal lobe factor in verb fluency. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2007;43:607-615.

[40] ⁴⁰
Clark DG, Wadley VG, Kapur P, et al. Lexical factors and cerebral regions influencing verbal fluency performance in MCI. Neuropsychologia 2014;54:98-111.

[41] ⁴¹
Piras F, Marangolo P. Noun-verb naming in aphasia: a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping study. Neuroreport 2007;18:1455-1458.

[42] ⁴²
Piras F, Marangolo P. When 'Crack walnuts' lies in different brain regions: evidence from a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping study. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2010;16:433-442.

[43] ⁴³
Libon DJ, McMillan C, Avants B, et al. Deficits in concept formation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neuropsychology 2012;26:422-429.

[44] ⁴⁴
Daniele A, Barbier A, Di Giuda D, et al. Selective impairment of action-verb naming and comprehension in progressive supranuclear palsy. Cortex J Devoted Study Nerv Syst Behav 2013;49:948-960.

[45] ⁴⁵
Breier JI, Papanicolaou AC. Spatiotemporal Patterns of Brain Activation During an Action Naming Task Using Magnetoencephalography: J Clin Neurophysiol 2008;25:7-12.

[46] ⁴⁶
SOROS P, CORNELISSEN K, LAINE M, SALMELIN R. NAMING ACTIONS AND OBJECTS: CORTICAL DYNAMICS IN HEALTHY ADULTS AND IN AN ANOMIC PATIENT WITH A DISSOCIATION IN ACTION/OBJECT NAMING. NEUROIMAGE 2003;19:1787-1801.

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