Cited by 318Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchHistorical and Modern Theater StudiesNeurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

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Longitudinal Verbal Fluency in Normal Aging, Preclinical, and Prevalent Alzheimer’s Disease

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Clark, Linda J., Gatz, Margaret, Zheng, Ling, Chen, Yu-Ling, McCleary, Carol, Mack, Wendy J.·2009·American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias®

DOI 10.1177/1533317509345154PMC PMC2824246

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Abstract

Background: Few longitudinal studies evaluate differences in patterns of change of category compared to letter fluency across the spectrum of cognitive impairment. Methods: We compared change in category (animal and supermarket) and letter (F, A, S) fluency among 239 participants in 3 groups: remained cognitively normal throughout follow-up (n = 96), developed Alzheimer’s Disease (AD; preclinical AD, n = 21), and with AD at initial testing (prevalent AD, n = 122). Results: At baseline, prevalent and preclinical AD groups scored lower on animal than letter fluency. On all fluency measures, the prevalent AD declined faster than other groups (all P < .0001), and preclinical AD declined faster than unimpaired (all P ≤ .02). Overall, animal fluency declined faster than letter fluency; animal fluency declined significantly faster than letter fluency among cognitively normal and prevalent AD participants. Conclusion: Greater longitudinal declines in category compared to letter fluency are consistent with cross-sectional studies. Steeper declines on both fluency measures distinguish preclinical AD from cognitively unimpaired individuals.

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Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling Change and Event Occurrence
Singer, J. D., & Willett, J. B. (2003) · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152968.001.0001 · Cited by 10,647
Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS—ADRDA Work Group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease
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Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience
Hedden, T., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2004) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn1323 · Cited by 2,223 · cited 1×
“group, given the relative stability of semantic memory in normal aging.(22) First, it is difficult to separate normal aging from disease.”
Background
Mild cognitive impairment can be distinguished from Alzheimer disease and normal aging for clinical trials
Grundman, M. (2004) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneur.61.1.59 · Cited by 972 · cited 1×
“It has further been shown that category fluency distinguishes normal controls from participants diagnosed as either cognitively impaired but not demented (CIND) or as mild cognitive impairment (MCI).(9,10) Finally, baseline impairments in category fluency predict who subsequently will develop AD.”
Background
Verbal fluency performance in dementia of the Alzheimer’s type: a meta-analysis
Henry, J. D., Crawford, J. R., & Phillips, L. H. (2004) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.02.001 · Cited by 847 · cited 1×
“Tests of verbal fluency draw on both executive function and language abilities, and provide good discrimination between persons with normal cognitive function compared to those with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD).(1) Although tests of verbal fluency can include either category fluency or letter fluency, it is now well…”
Background
Comparisons of Verbal Fluency Tasks in the Detection of Dementia of the Alzheimer Type
Monsch, A. U., Bondi, M. W., Butters, N., Salmon, D. P., Katzman, R., & Thal, L. J. (1992) · Archives of Neurology · doi:10.1001/archneur.1992.00530360051017 · Cited by 658
Role of frontal versus temporal cortex in verbal fluency as revealed by voxel-based lesion symptom mapping
Baldo, J. V., Schwartz, S., Wilkins, D. P., & Dronkers, N. F. (2006) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s1355617706061078 · Cited by 594 · cited 1×
“Our findings are consistent with the suggestion that the preclinical individuals may already have deterioration in the temporal/parietal area, since animal naming would be associated with the temporal/parietal part of the brain, while FAS would be associated with the frontal lobes.(20,21) We add 2 further comments abo…”
Result
Language performance in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment: A comparative review
Taler, V., & Phillips, N. A. (2008) · Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/13803390701550128 · Cited by 529 · cited 1×
“Our cross-sectional findings are consistent with numerous reports that have compared fluency measures at a single testing between participants with AD and unimpaired participants(1-7) and between participants with MCI or preclinical AD and unimpaired participants.(2,9-12) In these cross-sectional analyses, we found th…”
Result
The 9 year cognitive decline before dementia of the Alzheimer type: a prospective population-based study
Amieva, H., Jacqmin‐Gadda, H., Orgogozo, J., Carret, N. L., Helmer, C., Letenneur, L., Barberger‐Gateau, P., Fabrigoule, C., & Dartigues, J. (2005) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/awh451 · Cited by 470 · cited 11×
“One study found that participants with AD showed more rapid decline at 1-year followup in category fluency compared to cognitively intact participants, while showing little change in letter fluency in the same time period.14 In the MoVIES study, there was significant decline over 2 years on categorical but not on lett…”
BackgroundInfluential

Show all 24 references

Research works printed but not linked: 4

10.1212/01.WNL.0000147470.58328.50 · DOI · Paper page
10.1212/WNL.34.7.939 · DOI · Paper page
Singer JD, 2003, Modeling Change and Event Occurrence
10.1037/0882-7974.17.3.435 · DOI

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Depressive Symptoms are Associated with Decline Over Time in Verbal Fluency Performance in Female but Not Male Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Wasserman, J. S., & Holtzer, R. (2023) · Experimental Aging Research · doi:10.1080/0361073x.2023.2195295 · Cited by 4
“Further, research has shown that individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease perform worse on category fluency tasks as compared to letter fluency tasks (Clark et al., 2009; Henry, Crawford, & Phillips, 2004; Murphy, Rich, & Troyer, 2006).”
BackgroundInfluential
Phonological Verbal Fluency Test for Russian-Speaking Children
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Longitudinal decline in semantic versus letter fluency, but not their ratio, marks incident Alzheimer’s disease in Latinx Spanish-speaking older individuals
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“Nationwide surveys and epidemiological studies have used the AFT and DSST to assess cognitive functioning and/or to assess the respective cognitive domains that these tests are able to measure (Alam et al., 2022; Bienias et al., 2003; Canning et al., 2004; Clark et al., 2009; Strauss et al., 2006; Wechsler, 1997).”
MethodInfluential
The association of diet carbohydrates consumption with cognitive function among US older adults modification by daily fasting duration
Zhao, S., Han, T., Pei, X., Song, Y., Zhang, Y., Liu, L., Wang, X., Hou, W., & Sun, C. (2022) · Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.991007 · Cited by 7
“Cognitive function was collected by a Mobile Examination Center (MEC) and was evaluated by the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease Word List Learning Test (CERAD-WL), the CERAD Word List Delayed Recall Test (CERAD-DR), the Animal Fluency (AF) test and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), w…”
Method
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Blood Inflammation Indexes Mediate the Association Between Weight‐Adjusted‐Waist Index and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults in the United States
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“[37] Poor HGS has also been found to be associated with poor verbal fluency as well as verbal recall scores, with sex differences, and has the potential to be used as a screening tool to identify early signs of cognitive impairment.”
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Liang, L., Sheffield, P. E., Calixte, R., Xia, T., Zhang, S. X., & Lin, J. J. (2025) · NeuroToxicology · doi:10.1016/j.neuro.2025.103336 · Cited by 2
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Wu, J., Shi, M., & Wang, C. (2025) · Frontiers in Neurology · doi:10.3389/fneur.2025.1533821 · Cited by 5
“…information (24, 25); AFT is used to verify govt feature as properly as different functions, such as semantic reminiscence and processing velocity (26); DSST serves as a international measure of intelligence health, relying on processing speed, visible scanning, sustained attention, and momentary…”
Association between ethylene oxide exposure and cognitive function in older adults from NHANES data
Sun, M., Cai, M., Sun, S., Liu, H., & Chen, G. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-87384-y · Cited by 3
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“…(falling under the domain of memory) 31 ; the Animal Fluency examination, aimed at measuring categorical verbal fluency (a component of executive function) 32 ; and the digit symbol substitution test (DSST), intended to assess processing speed, sustained attention, and working memory 33 .”
Method
Association Between Ethylene Oxide Exposure and Cognitive Function in US Older Adults: NHANES 2013-2014
Liu, S. Q., Li, J., Wang, L., Zhang, Y., Wei, B., & Li, Y. (2024) · Journal of Alzheimer s Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-240662 · Cited by 3
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“Cognitive functioning was assessed by 1) the CERAD-WL) and CERAD-DL subtests [59], 2) the Animal Fluency test (AF) [60], and 3) the Digit Symbol Substitution test (DSST) which reflect learning and memory, semantic fluency, and executive functioning cognitive domains, respectively [61].”
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How well does the discrepancy between semantic and letter verbal fluency performance distinguish Alzheimer’s dementia from typical aging?
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“Similarly, SF has been found to be a good discriminator between typical aging and prodromal forms of dementia such as Mild Cognitive Impairment, or MCI (e.g., Adlam et al., 2006; Clark et al., 2009; Sutin et al., 2019).”
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“In another longitudinal study (Clark et al., 2009) recruiting participants initiallywith normal cognitive functionwho later developed AD, itwas found instead that both letter and semantic fluency measures were associated with progression of the disease.”
Background
Cognition in Ageing
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“Word finding difficulties are frequent in clinically probable AD, even at a pre-dementia stage (Bayles and Tomoeda 1983; Huff et al. 1986; Chertkow and Bub 1990; Vandenbulcke et al. 2007; Apostolova et al. 2008; Clark et al. 2009; Sugarman et al. 2012).”
Associations of Dietary Decanoic Acid Intake With Cognitive Function in the Elderly and the Mediating Effects of Hypertension and Diabetes: An Analysis From NHANES 2011–2014
Zhu, H.-X., Fu, Q., Hu, J., Wu, Y., & Min, J. (2026) · Brain and Behavior · doi:10.1002/brb3.71180 · Cited by 2
“The AFT evaluates language and word-retrieval ability and serves as an early screen for dementia and mild cognitive impairment (Clark et al. 2009 ).”
Sex differences in the association between energy‐adjusted dietary inflammatory index and cognitive function in older adults
Liu, K., Zhong, Y., Cen, P.-L., Dong, L., Chen, Y.-H., Hu, D.-Y., Jin, C.-T., Zhou, R., Chen, Y.-J., Sun, Y., et al. (2025) · Alzheimer's & Dementia · doi:10.1002/alz.70908 · Cited by 2
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Ding, H., Kang, T., Gao, W., Wang, Q., Liu, S., Zhang, X.-W., & Yu, J. (2025) · BMC Geriatrics · doi:10.1186/s12877-025-05999-2 · Cited by 2
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Phonemic word fluency is related to temporal and striatal gray matter volume in healthy older adults
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“Semantic WF performance is often found to be negatively affected by age (Tomer & Levin, 1993; Kozora & Cullum, 1995; Bolla et al., 1998; Loonstra et al. 2001; Brickman et al., 2005; L. J. Clark et al., 2009), so concurrent age-related brain changes should also be present.”
APOE Genotype Modifies the Association of Fusiform Gyrus Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Oxygen Consumption and Object Naming Performance
Hays, C. C., Zlatar, Z. Z., Meloy, M. J., Shin, D. D., Liu, T., & Wierenga, C. E. (2023) · Journal of Alzheimer s Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-220749 · Cited by 2
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Diaz, M. T., & Hernandez, A. (2022) · Brain and Language · doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105125 · Cited by 2
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Frith, E., & Loprinzi, P. D. (2019) · Journal of Cognitive Enhancement · doi:10.1007/s41465-019-00127-6 · Cited by 5
“The animal fluency test has also been employed in various epidemiological cohorts (Canning et al. 2004; Clark et al. 2009; Grundman et al. 2004; Ramirez-Gomez et al. 2017; Tuokko et al. 2017), assessing verbal fluency and semanticrelated memory function (Duff et al. 2005).”
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Chen, Y., Liu, T., & Chen, L. (2026) · Food Science & Nutrition · doi:10.1002/fsn3.71631 · Cited by 1
“With scores ranging from 3 to 40, the AFT evaluates category verbal fluency (Clark et al. 2009).”
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“Thus, verbal fluency tasks are hybrid measures that tap into both language and executive domains, making them sensitive to range of age-related cognitive changes (Clark et al., 2009).”
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Burke, E. M., Cousins, E., HAMRICK, P. J. J., & Gunstad, J. (2025) · Applied Neuropsychology Adult · doi:10.1080/23279095.2025.2592881 · Cited by 1
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Quiroz, K. M. V., Maldonado-Paz, G., & Hernández-Galván, A. (2025) · Dementia & Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1590/1980-5764-dn-2025-0293 · Cited by 2
“Therefore, PF is more difficult than SF 66 , and SF is more vulnerable to the aging process 67,68 , declining more rapidly than PF in healthy individuals 69 due to the mnemonic component involved in this task.”
The impact of a language stimulation program on maintaining verbal fluency in Alzheimer's disease
Wąsik, M., Ratajczak, M., & Potemkowski, A. (2025) · Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy · doi:10.12740/app/203506 · Cited by 1
“The CFT is considered more sensitive to neurodegenerative changes in AD than phonemic fluency, as semantic memory is more closely linked to posterior temporal lobe functioning [6,37,41,42], whereas phonemic fluency is primarily influenced by frontal lobe efficiency [43].”
Overactive bladder and cognitive impairment in adults aged 60 and over: A cross-sectional study
Li, Z., Wang, T., & Ou, X. (2025) · Medicine · doi:10.1097/md.0000000000044544 · Cited by 1
“[12] Participants are instructed to name as many different animals as they can within a time limit of one minute, with each named animal earning a point.”
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Liu, H., Chen, X., Ma, G., Zhang, M., Chen, X., & Fan, H. (2025) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2025.116744 · Cited by 1
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Fan, L., Jiang, H., & Zhang, Z. (2025) · BioData Mining · doi:10.1186/s13040-025-00484-3 · Cited by 1
Decreased Depression 12 Months After Cochlear Implantation Is Not Associated With Improved Cognitive Performance.
Huber, M., Weitgasser, L., Reuter, L., Pletzer, B., & Illg, A. (2025) · Ear and Hearing · doi:10.1097/aud.0000000000001719 · Cited by 1
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“Research has shown its ability to distinguish individuals with normal cognition from those with slight cognitive impairment or advanced disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease (Henry et al. 2004; Clark et al. 2009; Canning et al. 2004).”
Retinal vessel diameter reflects altered resting-state fMRI connectivity and cognitive performance: A community-based study
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“The AFT was used to examine categorical verbal fluency, which is a facet of executive function [25].”
Method
Physical Activity and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults, United States
Amoatika, D. A., Rokonuzzaman, S., Yi, F., Brown, M. J., & Liu, J. (2024) · Activities Adaptation & Aging · doi:10.1080/01924788.2024.2413783 · Cited by 1
Semantic and phonemic verbal fluency tests: Normative data for the Turkish population
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“For instance, Clark et al. (2009) found that healthy elderly individuals aged 60 years and older, who received more than 11 years of education, produced an average of 20 animals per minute on the semantic fluency task and an average of 41 words for the three letter categories on phone-mic fluency…”
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Malcorra, B. L. C., García, A. O., Marcotte, K., de Paz, H., Schilling, L. P., Filho, I. G. D. S., Soder, R. B., Franco, A. D. R., Loureiro, F., & Hübner, L. C. (2023) · American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology · doi:10.1044/2023_ajslp-23-00137 · Cited by 1
Development of a Cognitive Composite for Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease in Korean Older Adults
Kim, M., Yi, D., Byun, M. S., Ahn, H., Jung, J. H., Kong, N., Chang, Y., Choi, H., Choi, J.-M., Kim, K. T., et al. (2023) · Journal of Alzheimer s Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-230263 · Cited by 2
Visualizing and Quantifying Longitudinal Changes in Verbal Fluency Using Recurrence Plots
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Anamnesis: Intertextual Memory and Alzheimer’s Disease
Wagner, K. (2017) · doi:10.3390/genealogy1020013 · Cited by 1
“…community (Verma and Howard 2012; Minati et al. 2009), and has been explored both in terms of verbal fluency and naming (Chan et al. 1991; Auriacombe et al. 2006; Laws et al. 2007; Apostolova et al. 2008; Taler and Phillips 2008) as well as semantic fluency (Adlam et al. 2006; Clark et al. 2009).”
Background
Development of a Differential Neurocognitive Profile for Alzheimer’s Dementia and Vascular Dementia
Hill, J. (2013) · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · doi:10.12794/metadc500158
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“…only effective within a larger battery of assessments, but even on its own, the verbal fluency task scores are capable of separating people with cognitive impairment from healthy controls (Chi et al., 2014; Clark et al., 2009, 2016; Henry et al., 2004; McDonnell et al., 2020; Soni et al., 2021).”

Authors: Clark, L. J., Gatz, M., Zheng, L., Chen, Y.-L., McCleary, C., & Mack, W. J.
Affiliations: University of Southern California (US)
Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and Department of Neurology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Corresponding author: Mack, Wendy J.
ORCID: Gatz, Margaret
Zheng, Ling
Mack, Wendy J.
Venue: American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias®
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2009-09-16
Volume: 24
Issue: 6
Pages: 461-468
ISSN: 0888-4897 (ISSN-L)
1533-3175
1938-2731
DOI: 10.1177/1533317509345154
PMC: PMC2824246
OpenAlex: W2058044289
Cited by: 318
References: 24
Citations by year: 2026: 14 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 5
FWCI: 4.12
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Licence: journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: American Journal of Alzheimer s Disease & Other Dementias® (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institutes of Health
National Institute on Aging (P50-AG05142, P50AG005142)
Topics: Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Historical and Modern Theater Studies
Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
Keywords: verbal fluency, semantic fluency, phonemic fluency, animal fluency, Alzheimer's disease, preclinical Alzheimer's disease, normal aging, cognitive decline, longitudinal change, cognitive impairment
MeSH terms: Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Diagnosis, Differential, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Memory, Neuropsychological Tests, Semantics, Speech Disorders, Prevalence, Multivariate Analysis, Disease Progression, Early Diagnosis

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Longitudinal Verbal Fluency in Normal Aging, Preclinical, and Prevalent Alzheimer’s Disease

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