Resumo

FIORENTINI, Leticia et al. Alteration of concept formation and conceptual reasoning in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Neuropsicologia Latinoamericana [online]. 2015, vol.7, n.1, pp. 1-11. ISSN 2075-9479.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5579/rnl.2015.0202.

In this work, the study of the formation of artificial concepts and conceptual reasoning in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is addressed. A theoretical and experimental paradigm that allows the examination of the formation of stimulus equivalence classes (SEC), such as establishing relationships between equivalence classes (REC) was used. There were included 18 patients with MS relapsing-remitting form and 18 healthy volunteers matched for age, education and socioeconomic status. A cross-sectional study of patients and controls that were assessed with a computed task of stimulus equivalence classes and relationships between classes was performed. Additionally, a battery of conventional neuropsychological assessment was administered. Capabilities to perform these tasks among the patient group and the control group of healthy subjects were compared. Performance on these tasks between patients with and without cognitive impairment was also compared. On this basis, the correlations observed between the formation of equivalence classes of stimuli and the establishment of relations between the equivalence classes, and cognitive skills assessed with conventional neuropsychological tests were examined. The conclusions of this study are: 1) MS patients have difficulty forming the SEC and establish REC, in contrast to healthy subjects. 2) That the difficulty forming SEC and REC is associated with attentional disorders, executive function, and verbal and visual memory, and can not be attributed to fatigue that affects patients with MS. 3) That the measures of SEC tasks are associated with performance on tests of concept formation and conceptual reasoning that are used in conventional neuropsychological assessments. 4) That the REC tests measures showed no associations with conventional analogical reasoning tests.

Palavras-chave : Concept formation; Conceptual reasoning; Equivalence classes; Equivalence-equivalence relations; Multiple sclerosis; Cognitive impairment.

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