VERBAL ABSTRACTION DEFICIT IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

To reexamine the status of verbal reasoning in comparison to nonverbal reasoning in multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers administered the Shipley institute of Living Scale (SILS), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and a shortened version of the Free Sorting part of the California Card Sorting Test (CCST) to 100 MS patients and 32 age- and education-equated controls. Patients achieved fewer categories on the WCST, fewer correct sorts on the CCST, and lower scores on the Abstraction scale from the SILS than did controls. Patients also scored lower on the Vocabulary Scale from the SILS, but because they also attained lower Conceptual and Abstraction Quotients, their poorer performance on verbal abstraction cannot be attributed solely to lower verbal ability. Conceptual impairments occurred for MS patients, regardless of whether they also exhibited increased perseverative responding.