[Boston Naming Test: performance of Brazilian population from São Paulo].

BACKGROUND: The Boston Naming Test is frequently used to evaluate naming deficits. The scores used in Brazil have been the same as those used in the American version. In the case of individuals with poor schooling associated to cerebral lesions, a frequent situation in our country, one runs the risk of considering a poor performance as a deficit, what in fact is a consequence of lack of knowledge and cultural deprivation. AIM: to evaluate the influence of age and schooling in the naming ability of normal individuals, from São Paulo city, in a visual confrontation task.
METHOD: 133 normal volunteers, aged between 28 and 70 years.
RESULTS: the scores obtained in spontaneous naming were [mean (SD)]: [39.4 (9.8)]; per age group: 28 - 50 years [39.5 (10.5)], 51 - 70 years [39.1 (9.1)]; per schooling: 1 - 4 years [33.7 (9.6)], 5 - 8 years [36.6 (7.9)], 9 or more [47.4 (6)]. The comparison between the performances of the two age groups did not reveal any significant differences. Higher educational level determined a better performance both in spontaneous and facilitated naming. Cues of stimuli were necessary for the individuals to access the correct name, especially for the group with lower educational level. Phonemic cues, on the other hand, benefited individuals with more than eight years of formal education. The suggested cut-off score for the test to be use in Brazil was calculated by the ROC curve analysis and based on the comparison between normal and aphasic individuals.
CONCLUSION: schooling was the variable that had the greatest influence on performance. Although the level of difficulty of a few items may, to some extent, differ between English and Portuguese, the translated version of the BNT can be used without any adaptations for the Brazilian population, provided that the level of education is taken in consideration when interpreting the results.