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BioMed Research International 2014Anomia, a word-finding difficulty, is a frequent consequence of poststroke linguistic disturbance, associated with fluent and nonfluent aphasia that needs long-term...
Anomia, a word-finding difficulty, is a frequent consequence of poststroke linguistic disturbance, associated with fluent and nonfluent aphasia that needs long-term specific and intensive speech rehabilitation. The present study explored the feasibility of telerehabilitation as compared to a conventional face-to-face treatment of naming, in patients with poststroke anomia. Five aphasic chronic patients participated in this study characterized by: strictly controlled crossover design; well-balanced lists of words in picture-naming tasks where progressive phonological cues were provided; same kind of the treatment in the two ways of administration. ANOVA was used to compare naming accuracy in the two types of treatment, at three time points: baseline, after treatment, and followup. The results revealed no main effect of treatment type (P = 0.844) indicating that face-to-face and tele-treatment yielded comparable results. Moreover, there was a significant main effect of time (P = 0.0004) due to a better performance immediately after treatment and in the followup when comparing them to baseline. These preliminary results show the feasibility of teletreatment applied to lexical deficits in chronic stroke patients, extending previous work on telerehabilitation and opening new vistas for future studies on teletreatment of language functions.
Topics: Aged; Anomia; Cognition; Demography; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Stroke; Stroke Rehabilitation; Telemedicine
PubMed: 24829914
DOI: 10.1155/2014/706909 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Mar 2018Masked priming has been suggested as a way to directly target implicit lexical retrieval processes in aphasia. This study was designed to investigate repeated use of...
PURPOSE
Masked priming has been suggested as a way to directly target implicit lexical retrieval processes in aphasia. This study was designed to investigate repeated use of masked repetition priming to improve picture naming in individuals with anomia due to aphasia.
METHOD
A single-subject, multiple-baseline design was used across 6 people with aphasia. Training involved repeated exposure to pictures that were paired with masked identity primes or sham primes. Two semantic categories were trained in series for each participant. Analyses assessed treatment effects, generalization within and across semantic categories, and effects on broader language skills, immediately and 3 months after treatment.
RESULTS
Four of the 6 participants improved in naming trained items immediately after treatment. Improvements were generally greater for items that were presented in training with masked identity primes than items that were presented repeatedly during training with masked sham primes. Generalization within and across semantic categories was limited. Generalization to broader language skills was inconsistent.
CONCLUSION
Masked repetition priming may improve naming for some individuals with anomia due to aphasia. A number of methodological and theoretical insights into further development of this treatment approach are discussed.
Topics: Aged; Anomia; Female; Generalization, Psychological; Humans; Language Therapy; Male; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Names; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Photic Stimulation; Repetition Priming; Semantics; Speech; Treatment Outcome
PubMed: 29486491
DOI: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-17-0192 -
Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) Sep 2023The relationship between language and thought is the subject of long-standing debate. One claim states that language facilitates categorization of objects based on a...
The relationship between language and thought is the subject of long-standing debate. One claim states that language facilitates categorization of objects based on a certain feature (e.g. color) through the use of category labels that reduce interference from other, irrelevant features. Therefore, language impairment is expected to affect categorization of items grouped by a single feature (low-dimensional categories, e.g. "Yellow Things") more than categorization of items that share many features (high-dimensional categories, e.g. "Animals"). To test this account, we conducted two behavioral studies with individuals with aphasia and an fMRI experiment with healthy adults. The aphasia studies showed that selective low-dimensional categorization impairment was present in some, but not all, individuals with severe anomia and was not characteristic of aphasia in general. fMRI results revealed little activity in language-responsive brain regions during both low- and high-dimensional categorization; instead, categorization recruited the domain-general multiple-demand network (involved in wide-ranging cognitive tasks). Combined, results demonstrate that the language system is not implicated in object categorization. Instead, selective low-dimensional categorization impairment might be caused by damage to brain regions responsible for cognitive control. Our work adds to the growing evidence of the dissociation between the language system and many cognitive tasks in adults.
Topics: Humans; Adult; Language; Brain; Aphasia
PubMed: 37557910
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad289 -
Brain : a Journal of Neurology Nov 2017See Thompson and Woollams (doi:10.1093/brain/awx264) for a scientific commentary on this article. Previous research with aphasic patients has shown that picture naming...
See Thompson and Woollams (doi:10.1093/brain/awx264) for a scientific commentary on this article. Previous research with aphasic patients has shown that picture naming can be facilitated by concurrent phonemic cueing [e.g. initial phoneme(s) of the word that the patient is trying to retrieve], both as an immediate word retrieval technique, and when practiced repeatedly over time as a long-term anomia treatment. Here, to investigate the neural mechanisms supporting word retrieval, we adopted—for the first time—a functional magnetic resonance imaging task using the same naming procedure as it occurs during the anomia treatment process. Before and directly after a 6-week anomia treatment programme, 18 chronic aphasic stroke patients completed our functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol—a picture naming task aided by three different types of phonemic cues (whole words, initial phonemes, final phonemes) and a noise-control condition. Patients completed a naming task based on the training materials, and a more general comprehensive battery of language tests both before and after the anomia treatment, to determine the effectiveness and specificity of the therapy. Our results demonstrate that the anomia treatment was effective and specific to speech production, significantly improving both patients’ naming accuracy and reaction time immediately post-treatment (unstandardized effect size: 29% and 17%, respectively; Cohen’s d: 3.45 and 1.83). Longer term gains in naming were maintained 3 months later. Functional imaging results showed that both immediate and long-term facilitation of naming involved a largely overlapping bilateral frontal network including the right anterior insula, inferior frontal and dorsal anterior cingulate cortices, and the left premotor cortex. These areas were associated with a neural priming effect (i.e. reduced blood oxygen level-dependent signal) during both immediate (phonemically-cued versus control-cue conditions), and long-term facilitation of naming (i.e. treated versus untreated items). Of note is that different brain regions were sensitive to different phonemic cue types. Processing of whole word cues was associated with increased activity in the right angular gyrus; whereas partial word cues (initial and final phonemes) recruited the left supplementary motor area, and right anterior insula, inferior frontal cortex, and basal ganglia. The recruitment of multiple and bilateral areas may help explain why phonemic cueing is such a successful behavioural facilitation tool for anomia treatment. Our results have important implications for optimizing current anomia treatment approaches, developing new treatments, and improving speech outcome for aphasic patients.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Anomia; Aphasia; Chronic Disease; Cues; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Photic Stimulation; Reaction Time; Stroke; Treatment Outcome; Young Adult
PubMed: 29053773
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awx234 -
Psychological Methods Jun 2012Panel studies, in which the same subjects are repeatedly observed at multiple time points, are among the most popular longitudinal designs in psychology. Meanwhile,... (Review)
Review
Panel studies, in which the same subjects are repeatedly observed at multiple time points, are among the most popular longitudinal designs in psychology. Meanwhile, there exists a wide range of different methods to analyze such data, with autoregressive and cross-lagged models being 2 of the most well known representatives. Unfortunately, in these models time is only considered implicitly, making it difficult to account for unequally spaced measurement occasions or to compare parameter estimates across studies that are based on different time intervals. Stochastic differential equations offer a solution to this problem by relating the discrete time model to its underlying model in continuous time. It is the goal of the present article to introduce this approach to a broader psychological audience. A step-by-step review of the relationship between discrete and continuous time modeling is provided, and we demonstrate how continuous time parameters can be obtained via structural equation modeling. An empirical example on the relationship between authoritarianism and anomia is used to illustrate the approach.
Topics: Anomie; Authoritarianism; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Empirical Research; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Models, Statistical; Psychology; Social Change; Stochastic Processes; Time Factors
PubMed: 22486576
DOI: 10.1037/a0027543 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2021Stroke is a leading cause of disability, and language impairments (aphasia) after stroke are both common and particularly feared. Most stroke survivors with aphasia...
Stroke is a leading cause of disability, and language impairments (aphasia) after stroke are both common and particularly feared. Most stroke survivors with aphasia exhibit anomia (difficulties with naming common objects), but while many therapeutic interventions for anomia have been proposed, treatment effects are typically much larger in some patients than others. Here, we asked whether that variation might be more systematic, and even predictable, than previously thought. 18 patients, each at least 6 months after left hemisphere stroke, engaged in a computerised treatment for their anomia over a 6-week period. Using only: (a) the patients' initial accuracy when naming (to-be) trained items; (b) the hours of therapy that they devoted to the therapy; and (c) whole-brain lesion location data, derived from structural MRI; we developed Partial Least Squares regression models to predict the patients' improvements on treated items, and tested them in cross-validation. Somewhat surprisingly, the best model included only lesion location data and the hours of therapy undertaken. In cross-validation, this model significantly out-performed the null model, in which the prediction for each patient was simply the mean treatment effect of the group. This model also made promisingly accurate predictions in absolute terms: the correlation between empirical and predicted treatment response was 0.62 (95% CI 0.27, 0.95). Our results indicate that individuals' variation in response to anomia treatment are, at least somewhat, systematic and predictable, from the interaction between where and how much lesion damage they have suffered, and the time they devoted to the therapy.
Topics: Anomia; Brain; Disease Management; Female; Humans; Male; Prognosis; Stroke
PubMed: 34535718
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97916-x -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Oct 2022People with aphasia (PWA) present with language deficits including word retrieval difficulties after brain damage. Language learning is an essential life-long human... (Review)
Review
People with aphasia (PWA) present with language deficits including word retrieval difficulties after brain damage. Language learning is an essential life-long human capacity that may support treatment-induced language recovery after brain insult. This prospect has motivated a growing interest in the study of language learning in PWA during the last few decades. Here, we critically review the current literature on language learning ability in aphasia. The existing studies in this area indicate that (i) language learning can remain functional in some PWA, (ii) inter-individual variability in learning performance is large in PWA, (iii) language processing, short-term memory and lesion site are associated with learning ability, (iv) preliminary evidence suggests a relationship between learning ability and treatment outcomes in this population. Based on the reviewed evidence, we propose a potential account for the interplay between language and memory/learning systems to explain spared/impaired language learning and its relationship to language therapy in PWA. Finally, we indicate potential avenues for future research that may promote more cross-talk between cognitive neuroscience and aphasia rehabilitation.
Topics: Aphasia; Humans; Language; Language Development; Language Therapy; Memory, Short-Term
PubMed: 35963544
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104825 -
Brain : a Journal of Neurology Jan 2008The patient with word-finding difficulty presents a common and challenging clinical problem. The complaint of 'word-finding difficulty' covers a wide range of clinical... (Review)
Review
The patient with word-finding difficulty presents a common and challenging clinical problem. The complaint of 'word-finding difficulty' covers a wide range of clinical phenomena and may signify any of a number of distinct pathophysiological processes. Although it occurs in a variety of clinical contexts, word-finding difficulty generally presents a diagnostic conundrum when it occurs as a leading or apparently isolated symptom, most often as the harbinger of degenerative disease: the progressive aphasias. Recent advances in the neurobiology of the focal, language-based dementias have transformed our understanding of these processes and the ways in which they breakdown in different diseases, but translation of this knowledge to the bedside is far from straightforward. Speech and language disturbances in the dementias present unique diagnostic and conceptual problems that are not fully captured by classical models derived from the study of vascular and other acute focal brain lesions. This has led to a reformulation of our understanding of how language is organized in the brain. In this review we seek to provide the clinical neurologist with a practical and theoretical bridge between the patient presenting with word-finding difficulty in the clinic and the evidence of the brain sciences. We delineate key illustrative speech and language syndromes in the degenerative dementias, compare these syndromes with the syndromes of acute brain damage, and indicate how the clinical syndromes relate to emerging neurolinguistic, neuroanatomical and neurobiological insights. We propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of word-finding difficulty, in order both better to define the patient's complaint and its differential diagnosis for the clinician and to identify unresolved issues as a stimulus to future work.
Topics: Anomia; Aphasia; Brain; Cognition Disorders; Dementia; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Language Tests; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 17947337
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awm251 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Jun 1992Following a left thalamic infarct, a patient showed a marked impairment in retrieving person proper names in response to faces and to verbal description, despite being...
Following a left thalamic infarct, a patient showed a marked impairment in retrieving person proper names in response to faces and to verbal description, despite being able to provide precise information about the persons he could not name and to point to their photograph when the name was provided by the examiner. The patient was also impaired in generating proper names, but could easily retrieve common names as well as geographical names and names of monuments. It is hypothesized that the arbitrary nature of the link between proper names and their referents makes access of phonological forms from the semantic store particularly labile. In agreement with this interpretation is the patient's inability to recall telephone numbers and to learn semantically arbitrary paired associates.
Topics: Aged; Anomia; Cerebral Infarction; Cues; Humans; Language; Male; Memory; Semantics
PubMed: 1499308
DOI: 10.1016/s0010-9452(13)80050-0 -
American Journal of Speech-language... Mar 2018This study explored the relationship between anomia and verbal short-term memory (STM) in the context of an interactive activation language processing model.
PURPOSE
This study explored the relationship between anomia and verbal short-term memory (STM) in the context of an interactive activation language processing model.
METHOD
Twenty-four individuals with aphasia and reduced STM spans (i.e., impaired immediate serial recall of words) completed a picture-naming task and a word pair repetition task (a measure of verbal STM). Correlations between verbal STM and word retrieval errors made on the picture-naming task were examined.
RESULTS
A significant positive correlation between naming accuracy and verbal span length was found. More intricate verbal STM analyses examined the relationship between picture-naming error types (i.e., semantic vs. phonological) and 2 measures of verbal STM: (a) location of errors on the word pair repetition task and (b) imageability and frequency effects on the word pair repetition task. Results indicated that, as phonological word retrieval errors (relative to semantic) increase, bias toward correct repetition of high-imageability words increases.
CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest that word retrieval and verbal STM tasks likely rely on a partially shared temporary linguistic activation process.
Topics: Aged; Anomia; Comprehension; Female; Humans; Language Tests; Male; Memory, Short-Term; Middle Aged; Phonetics; Semantics; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 29497750
DOI: 10.1044/2017_AJSLP-16-0194