Verbal Fluency and Semantic Association Deficits in Children with in birth Nonprogressive Neuromuscular Diseases

Maria Koriakina ^1* Olga Agranovich ² Ioannis Ntoumanis ¹ Maxim Ulanov ¹ Isak B Blank ¹ Anna N Shestakova ¹ Evgeny Blagovechtchenski ^1*

• ¹ Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
• ² Turner National Medical Research Center for Сhildren's Orthopedics and Trauma Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, Russia, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

The relationship between motor and cognitive skills is an important issue in neuroscience. Embodied cognition theory suggests that actions and bodily experiences are crucial for cognitive processing. This is especially relevant for children with in birth severe motor disorders (MD). In this study, we assessed verbal fluency, an important component of speech function, in this group of children We assessed the differences in the levels of verbal fluency, action/verbal naming, and semantic association development of children with limb motor disorders vs. healthy controls. The study involved 68 children from 7 to 15 years old: 36 children with obstetric brachial plexus palsy (OBPP) (n=22) or arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC) (n=14), and 32 healthy children. OBPP and AMC are in birth motor pathologies that often manifest as minimal mobility of the limbs. The results of the study showed that children with motor impairments performed significantly worse on verbal fluency and semantic association tasks than the control group, namely MD children produced fewer words in verbal fluency tasks and semantic association tasks. MD children with unilateral limb impairment performed better on the semantic association task than MD children with bilateral impairment. This result can be explained by reduced immersion in the physical environment, which includes objects that can be differently perceived and manipulated depending on the degree of impairment as well as the social and cultural contexts impacted by the motor impairments. Overall, our results support the view that cognition is embodied and that delays in motor skill development in patients with OBPP and AMC adversely impact the development of their cognitive functions.