Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 4 , Pages 197-203, April 2008

Cognitive and Motor Components of Response Speed in the Stroop Test in Parkinson's Disease Patients

  • Yi-Hsing Hsieh

      Affiliations

    • Department of Guidance and Counseling, National Changhua University of Education, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Kuan-Jen Chen

      Affiliations

    • Graduate Institute of Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Chin-Chi Wang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Chiou-Lian Lai

      Affiliations

    • Graduate Institute of Behavioral Sciences and Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr Chiou-Lian Lai, Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, 100 Shih-Chuan 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan

Received 29 March 2007; accepted 23 October 2007.

Article Outline

This study assessed the performance of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the Stroop test. Twenty-seven patients with PD (17 men, 10 women; mean age, 63.3 ± 10.5 years) and 27 age-matched controls (14 men, 13 women; mean age, 63.5 ± 9.2 years) were administered the color-naming, word-reading, and incongruent color-word-naming tasks in the Stroop test. Compared with the normal control group, the PD group had slower speeds for all three tasks and greater Stroop interference, indicating a response inhibition deficit in PD patients. Further analysis indicated that slowness during color naming might be due to motor slowness, rather than a central cognitive processing problem in color discrimination. In conclusion, the performance of the PD group on the three tasks of the Stroop test suggests that the PD patients were deficient in motor responses and cognitive inhibitory abilities.

Key Words:  Parkinson's disease , Stroop interference , Stroop test

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PII: S1607-551X(08)70117-7

doi:10.1016/S1607-551X(08)70117-7

Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 4 , Pages 197-203, April 2008

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