Abstract
This study refers to the experimental application of the Olomouc Figural Fluency Test (OFFT), used mostly for executive functions (EF) assessment, in patients with Parkinson disease. OFFT was administered as a part of a battery of tests to a group of 30 patients.
There were included individuals with idiopathic Parkinson disease G20 (n = 17) and with the diagnosis of secondary Parkinsonism G21 (n = 13) in the group. The test battery comprised Graphomotor test in two levels (GPMT1 and GPMT2), Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (RCFT), Verbal Fluency test (FAS), Categorial Fluency test, OFFT and Beck Depression Inventory scale (BDI-II).
According to the literature and research up to now on this topic we assumed that the deteriorated motor activity of the patients will influence negatively the performance in OFFT. First of all we compared our results with previous performance characteristics in OFFT in non-clinical population (n = 146).
In the second step we focused on considering the influence of the graphomotor abilities on the performance in OFFT in our clinical group. The correlation analysis proved statistically significant negative correlation between the time of GPMT and the total performance (TP) in OFFT (TP and GPMT1 = -0,43; TP and GPMT2 = -0,46) and between the time of GPMT1 and the total number of figures (TN; r = -0,40).
Furthermore the correlations between TP and other test methods were proved to be statistically significant too. The influence of the depressive symptomatology on the performance in any of used tests was not confirmed.
Equally no difference was registered in the performance of the group G20 and G21. The research shows that the quantitive performance in OFFT is to certain extent negatively influenced by the deteriorated level of graphomotor abilities.
However the OFFT seems to be a useful additional tool for qualitative analysis of the executive functions. Among the limits of this study count a small sample of participants, their occasional selection and heterogenity.