Finding the Right Words: A Lifespan Study of Verbal Fluency

Summary

We are conducting a study to find out if word games can help predict who might develop memory problems in the future. Finding ways to detect memory issues early is key for starting preventative treatments sooner.

It's important to note this research will not directly assess your own personal risk for memory decline. Participants will not receive results or feedback about their individual likelihood of developing memory impairment in the future. By participating in this study, you could help us identify early changes years before symptoms occur, but we want to be clear this does not indicate your personal risk.

Instead of expensive and invasive methods like brain scans, we are investigating whether simple spoken memory and thinking tasks can help identify those at risk of future memory issues. A verbal fluency task involves naming as many words as possible belonging to a given category, such as animals or vehicles, but we are interested in more than just the number of words you can say; we want to find ways to understand how you are searching for words while playing these games. We believe that the way people organise and access their knowledge of the world might be linked to the health of their brains! Alongside verbal fluency tasks, you will complete some short memory and attentional control games. The tasks will take a maximum of 75 minutes for you to complete and will be done via an online video call.

In addition, we will investigate how genetic factors, specifically the APOE gene, influence verbal fluency performance. APOE is linked to Alzheimer's risk, and we want to understand how it affects language abilities across a person's lifespan.

Our research may improve the early detection of memory decline and support the development of effective interventions. We aim to share our findings with healthcare professionals and the public, making our data and analysis tools freely available for future research. Additionally, we will explore how these measures can help in clinical practice and support the design of clinical trials for speech and language interventions