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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 25, 2025

Evaluation of the Cognitive Performance of Hypertensive Patients with Silent Cerebrovascular Lesions

Evaluation of the Cognitive Performance of Hypertensive Patients with Silent Cerebrovascular Lesions

Published on: April 23, 2021

White matter microstructure and verbal fluency.

Natalia Egorova-Brumley^1,2, Chen Liang³, Mohamed Salah Khlif^4,5

¹Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. natalia.egorova@unimelb.edu.au.

Brain Structure & Function

|October 17, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Poor semantic fluency after stroke is linked to reduced white matter integrity in key left-hemisphere tracts, including the arcuate fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus.

Keywords:

COWAT FAS Category fluency animals Fixel-based analysis (FBA)Superior longitudinal fasciculus Verbal fluency White matter

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Co-analysis of Brain Structure and Function using fMRI and Diffusion-weighted Imaging

Co-analysis of Brain Structure and Function using fMRI and Diffusion-weighted Imaging

Published on: November 8, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Neurology
Radiology

Background:

Verbal fluency deficits are common after stroke and predict cognitive impairment.
Previous research identified gray matter correlates of verbal fluency but less is known about white matter structural connections.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the association between white matter microstructure and verbal fluency performance in ischemic stroke survivors.
To identify specific white matter tracts critical for semantic and phonemic fluency after stroke.

Main Methods:

Seventy-two ischemic stroke survivors underwent diffusion MRI 3 months post-stroke.
White matter integrity (fiber density, cross-section) was analyzed in 72 tracts using MRtrix and TractSeg.
Regression analyses examined associations between white matter measures and performance on semantic (Category Fluency Animals) and phonemic (COWAT FAS) fluency tasks, controlling for stroke severity (NIHSS), age, sex, and education.

Main Results:

Worse semantic fluency performance was significantly associated with lower fiber density in several left-lateralized white matter tracts, including the arcuate fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, and occipital tracts.
No significant associations were found between phonemic fluency and white matter integrity after correction for multiple comparisons.
Identified tracts for semantic fluency were predominantly left-lateralized, despite a heterogeneous lesion distribution in the sample.

Conclusions:

Semantic verbal fluency in stroke survivors is associated with white matter microstructure, particularly in left-hemisphere tracts like the arcuate and superior longitudinal fasciculi.
These findings highlight the importance of white matter integrity in maintaining semantic fluency post-stroke and may reflect disconnections in the sagittal stratum.
The lack of association for phonemic fluency warrants further investigation with refined methods and sample characterization.