IHN at INS

Megan Hall, a research assistant in the DICoN lab, presented her latest work at the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) in New Orleans, February 12-15th.

See the two posters Megan presented below, alongside a summary of the work.

Verbal Fluency Changes with Age and is Mediated by Conditional Oscillatory Differences in the Left Perisylvian Cortex

Being able to understand language and communicate is important for navigating the world. Here, researchers examined how age and neural activity (measured using MEG during a semantic judgement task) influenced performance on a neuropsychological assessment of verbal fluency (measured using F-A-S and Animals). They found that alpha/beta oscillatory activity was generally stronger (decrease from baseline) when viewing related words and with older age, and that alpha activity in the left perisylvian cortex mediated the effect of age on verbal fluency.

Authors: Megan Hall, Maggie Rempe, Christine Embury, Chloe Casagrande, Yasra Arif, Mikki Schantell, Seth Bashford, Grant Garrison, Ryan Glesinger, Hannah Okelberry, Aubrie Petts, Elizabeth Keiifer, Giorgia Picci, Pamela May-Weeks, Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Tony Wilson.

Theta Activity Associated with Verbal Fluency Above and Beyond Hippocampal Volume

While word naming tends to remain stable or improve with age, verbal fluency tests that require processing speed may decrease with age, necessitating further investigation into the neurophysiological correlates underlying these assessments. Here, the team used hierarchical regression with both hippocampal volume (HV) and neural oscillatory activity derived from task-based MEG in healthy adults to examine the impact of left hippocampus structure and function on verbal fluency. They found that both HV and theta activity in the left hippocampus (when viewing unrelated words during a semantic judgement task) accounted for additional variance in phonemic fluency (as measured by the F-A-S) above and beyond the effects of age, education, and gender.

Authors: Megan Hall, Maggie Rempe, Giorgia Picci, Christine Embury, Chloe Casagrande, Yasra Arif, Mikki Schantell, Seth Bashford, Grant Garrison, Ryan Glesinger, Hannah Okelberry, Aubrie Petts, Elizabeth Keiifer, Pamela May-Weeks, Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Rachel Spooner, Tony Wilson.