Semantic memory on verbal fluency test in patients with anorexia nervosa

Ignacio Jauregui Lobera; Jesús M. Culebras

doi:10.19230/jonnpr.2853

Authors

Ignacio Jauregui Lobera Instituto de Ciencias de la Conducta y Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Sevilla
Jesús M. Culebras De la Real Academia de Medicina de Valladolid y del IBIOMED, Universidad de León. Académico Asociado al Instituto de España. AcProfesor Titular de Cirugía. Director, Journal of Negative & No Positive Results. Director Emérito de NUTRICION HOSPITALARIA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19230/jonnpr.2853

Keywords:

Anorexia nervosa, human body parts, semantic memory, verbal fluency task

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of this study was to analyse the performance and the semantic organization of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and of healthy controls by means of a “Human Body Parts” type of (Semantic Verbal Fluency) SVF task.

Method. A total of 58 participants took part in this study (23 suffered from anorexia nervosa, with a mean age of 21.32 ± 2.53, and 35 healthy participants, with a mean age of 22.41 ± 1.67). The Verbal Fluency Test “Human Body Parts” (a word naming task) was applied. In this task, participants were asked to say as many “Human Body Parts” as possible in a period of 1 minute. Participants were given the instruction not to repeat body parts already said. Responses were recorded and transcribed in order to be analysed.

Results. The mean number of words for the control group was 15.94 ± 7.79 and in case of anorectic patients it was 17.52 ± 5.23. With respect to intrusions and perseverance there were not any significant differences, having obtained 0.10 (control group) and 0.11 (anorectic patients), and 0.42 (control group) and 0,46 (anorectic patients) respectively. With respect to correspondence analysis, a two-dimensional representation yielded 90.01% of the total inertia, thus accepting two-dimensional map as valid. “Perceptible parts of human body” and “Internal parts” would be representative of one category and “Small parts” would be representative of the other. In the anorectic patients group some parts such as waist, ass, thighs and calf muscle were the most remembered words. In the control group, internal parts such as brain, heart and liver, along with tongue, are the most remembered words in the semantic memory organization.

Discussion. Semantic maps obtained in both groups of participants appear to be very different. Specifically, the semantic category “body parts” seems to be very influenced by the presence of anorexia nervosa. It is possible to conclude that studies on AN have reported controversial results in this field of study.

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