Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 23, 2026

A Metric Test for Assessing Spatial Working Memory in Adult Rats Following Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: May 7, 2021
Perseveration during verbal fluency in traumatic brain injury reflects impairments in working memory
Simon Fischer-Baum1, Michele Miozzo2, Marcella Laiacona3
1Department of Psychology.
Objective:
Previous studies of verbal fluency have reported higher rates of perseverative responses in both Alzheimer's disease (AD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) relative to control groups. These perseverations could arise from a number of impairments-for example, failures in working memory, inhibitory control, or word retrieval-and different clinical populations may show an increase in perseveration because of different underlying deficits. The objective of the current report is to investigate the cause of perseveration in verbal fluency in individuals with TBI and compare those results to a recent study of individuals with AD.
Method:
In a previous study, conducted by Miozzo, Fischer-Baum, and Caccappolo-van Vliet (2013), perseveration errors produced by individuals with AD were shown to have long lags between the 1st occurrence of a word and its repetition in verbal fluency, suggesting that perseverations were caused by a failure of the working memory mechanisms that control response monitoring. In the present investigation, we applied the same analysis to the perseveration errors produced during 197 administrations of the verbal fluency task with 143 individuals with TBI.
Results:
The perseverations of individuals with TBI showed a lag distribution similar to that of the AD population, with the lag between the 1st occurrence of a word and its repetition systematically longer than would be expected by chance.
Conclusions:
These results suggest that the perseverations produced during verbal fluency in individuals with TBI stem from the same working memory mechanism proposed in AD, rather than inhibitory control or word retrieval deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record
More Related Videos
11:47Modulating Cognition Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Cerebellum
Published on: February 15, 2015
10:43Developing Neuroimaging Phenotypes of the Default Mode Network in PTSD: Integrating the Resting State, Working Memory, and Structural Connectivity
Published on: July 1, 2014
Related Concept Videos
Role of Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex in Memory
Working Memory
Traumatic Memory
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory
Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...