<div>Background: Structural priming – a tendency to reuse previously encountered sentence structures – has been shown to facilitate production of sentences in persons with aphasia (PWA). However, the task-specific and person-specific factors that modulate the strength of priming effects in PWA remain largely unknown. This study examined (a) if PWA and healthy older adults (HOA) demonstrate improved production of passive sentences following comprehension of passive (as opposed to active) prime sentences, (b) whether repeated use of a verb between a prime and target sentence boosts priming effects, and (c) whether individual participants’ deficits in syntactic processing modulate degrees of priming effects.</div><div><br></div><div>Method: The participants (16 HOA and 13 PWA) completed a comprehension-to-production structural priming task. For prime sentences, they completed a sentence-to-picture matching comprehension task. Then, they described a target action picture, which could be described in an active or passive sentence structure. For half of the prime-target pairs, the verb was repeated to compare the priming effects in the same vs. different verb prime conditions (i.e., lexical boost). To analyze individual variability, we examined if PWA’s scores on clinical measures of syntactic comprehension and production were associated with a positive priming effect.</div><div><br></div><div>Results: Both HOA and PWA showed increased production of passive sentences following comprehension of passive primes, although the priming effect was reduced for PWA. A significant lexical boost was found in HOA, but not for PWA. Within PWA, individuals with higher scores on clinical measures of syntactic production, but not syntactic comprehension, showed a significant priming effect.</div><div><br></div><div>Conclusion: The findings suggest that implicit comprehension-to-production structural priming is preserved in aphasia and that lexically-mediated structural priming may not be critical to effectiveness of structural priming in aphasia. Preliminary results indicate that individuals’ syntactic skills in the domain of production may need to be considered when comprehension-to-production priming is used to improve sentence production.</div>

An interactive activation model for picture naming was used to guide treatment of a semantic-level deficit in 4 individuals with aphasia and severe picture-naming problems. Participants exhibited a profile consistent with Broca's aphasia with severe naming deficits, part of which was attributable to a semantic impairment based on testing of the lexical system. A semantic-based treatment was used to train naming of nouns in two semantic categories using a single-participant multiple baseline across behaviors and participants. Additional treatment, which included orthographic and phonological information about target words, then was applied. Treatment responses and error patterns demonstrated that semantic treatment resulted in improved naming of both trained and untrained items for 2 of 4 participants. Two participants did not show improved naming until treatment emphasizing the phonological form of the word was provided. This study demonstrates the utility of using an interactive activation model to plan treatment based on levels of disruption in the lexical processing system.

This study presents the results of an analysis of pragmatic aspects of language samples obtained from five agrammatic aphasic individuals prior to and following Linguistic Specific Treatment (LST). Clinically and statistically significant positive changes in informativeness and efficiency were documented in posttreatment samples. Analysis of communicative competence (i.e., naïve listeners' ratings of pre- and posttreatment audiotaped samples), was undertaken to examine the social validity of quantified changes. Mean ratings across listeners were computed to evaluate their subjective perceptions of general communicative constructs. Results indicated that objectively measured changes in pragmatic aspects were perceptible to naïve listeners, however, to varying degrees across participants and constructs.

The frequency and duration of six coverbal behaviors were examined in two experimental groups and one control group. Conversational samples of ten aphasic subjects, ten right hemisphere damaged (RHD) subjects, and ten matched, non-brain damaged (NBD) control subjects were scored for frequency and duration of eye contact, head nod, head shake, head tilt, smile and eyebrow raise. Only the frequency of smile was found to differ significantly; the RHD subjects smiled less often than either of the other two groups.

The question posed in this investigation was: Which stimulus input mode, verbal, pantomime, or combined verbal and pantomime, is more effective in facilitating short term sequential recall of language material with aphasic adults?

The purpose of this study was to compare the graphic production of fluent and non-fluent aphasic groups in terms of motoric and linguistic characteristics at three intervals of recovery, and to analyze change over time after combining the fluent and non-fluent aphasic groups.

Background: In Sweden, approximately 25 000–30 000 people suffer from a stroke every year. About a third of these get aphasia. Previous studies show communication problems between physical therapists and stroke patients with aphasia, which leads to difficulties in giving patients the opportunity to participate in their rehabilitation. There are few studies on how aphasia after stroke affects physiotherapeutic rehabilitation.  Objectives: To investigate a group of physical therapists' experiences of how aphasia affects the physiotherapeutic rehabilitation process after stroke, and how they feel that these patients have opportunity to participate in the rehabilitation.  Method: A qualitative design was used with a semi-structured interview guide followed by a qualitative content analysis. Six physical therapists in stroke care in three different regions, in inpatient and outpatient care were interviewed.  Results: Six main categories emerged from the interviews: Aphasia makes it more difficult to communicate, strategies for better communication with aphasia patients, teamwork is important in the rehabilitation process of aphasia patients - especially with speech and language therapists, how aphasia affects physiotherapists' examination and treatment measures, aphasia contributes to poorer patient participation and requires strategies for increased participation, and emotions in meetings with aphasia patients.  Conclusion: Aphasia is perceived to make it more difficult to communicate, which leads to difficulties in getting patients involved, even though the physical therapists together with the team use different strategies to improve communication and participation. Physiotherapeutic examinations are perceived as more difficult to carry out, but the exercise is not significantly affected by aphasia. / Bakgrund: I Sverige drabbas varje år cirka 25 000–30 000 personer av stroke. Ungefär en tredjedel av dessa får afasi. Tidigare studier visar på kommunikationsproblem mellan fysioterapeuter och strokepatienter med afasi vilket leder till svårigheter att ge patienterna möjlighet till delaktighet i rehabiliteringen. Det finns dock få studier kring hur afasi efter stroke påverkar den fysioterapeutiska rehabiliteringen.   Syfte: Att undersöka en grupp fysioterapeuters erfarenheter och upplevelser av hur afasi påverkar den fysioterapeutiska rehabiliteringsprocessen efter stroke, samt hur de upplever att dessa patienter har möjlighet att vara delaktiga i rehabiliteringen.  Metod: En kvalitativ design användes med en semistrukturerad intervjuguide följt av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Sex fysioterapeuter inom strokevård i tre olika regioner, inom såväl slutenvård som öppenvård intervjuades.   Resultat: Av intervjuerna framkom sex huvudkategorier: Afasi gör det svårare att kommunicera, strategier för bättre kommunikation med afasipatienter, teamarbete viktigt i rehabiliteringsprocessen av afasipatienter - särskilt med logopederna, hur afasi påverkar fysioterapeuternas undersöknings- och behandlingsåtgärder, afasin bidrar till sämre delaktighet för patienterna och kräver strategier för ökad delaktighet, samt känslor vid möten med afasipatienter.   Konklusion: Afasin upplevs göra det svårare att kommunicera vilket leder till svårigheter med att få patienterna delaktiga trots att fysioterapeuterna tillsammans med teamet använder olika strategier för att förbättra kommunikation och delaktighet. Fysioterapeutiska undersökningarna upplevs som svårare att genomföra, men träningen påverkas inte anmärkningsvärt av afasin utan de flesta patienter kan träna det som de behöver.

AIM AND PURPOSE: The aim of this research project is to investigate within-language and cross-language semantic facilitation and interference effects in English-Spanish bilingual persons with aphasia and neurotypical adults. The purpose of the project described in this protocol is to gain insight into how languages are initiated in bilingual speakers who present with aphasia, specifically when presented with semantically related stimuli. METHODS: To achieve this aim, participants wore an eye-tracking device and were presented with an image and four word choices. They were asked to match the picture to the most correct word. The word choices included the correct target word, semantically related words in English or Spanish, and at least two semantically unrelated words. The exact distribution of word type was dependent on the experimental condition. Their trial duration, dwell time per area of interest, and total fixation count per area of interest was collected for each trial and analyzed using mixed linear effects models. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that bilinguals with aphasia (BWA) spent significantly more time on trials that included a semantically related word in Spanish, compared to semantically unrelated words in either language or semantically related words in English. This pattern was not seen in neurologically healthy control participants. We also showed that across group all participants spent more time on the target word compared to semantically related words, however, BWA demonstrated increased fixation measures in trials that included a Spanish semantically related word. This pattern was not seen in neurologically healthy control participants. These results demonstrate increased semantic interference in BWA when compared to neurologically healthy control participants. CONCLUSION: Spanish-English BWA may be more susceptible to cross-language semantic interference compared to neurologically healthy bilingual individuals. However, both BWA and neurologically healthy individuals may experience within language semantic interference.

Humans engage with a variety of symbols in daily life. Perhaps the most common symbol form is language where we represent myriad concepts, ideas, and notions through strings of sounds and letters. Human communication is also facilitated through other non-verbal symbol modalities ranging from body language/gestures (e.g., crossed arms, thumbs up) to objects (clothing as an indication of social status), and signs (red octagon means stop). Child language research has explored symbolic cognition and its emergence in development, but fundamental questions remain regarding symbolic thinking in adulthood and the impact a symbolic deficit can have on communication. A novel, neurologically-constrained model of symbolic representation is proposed and investigated which aims to addresses open challenges in exploring symbolic cognition. In Chapter 1, SymCog, a novel toolkit to evaluate symbolic representation is developed and normed in a series of three studies. This toolkit and its task, the Symbol Identification Task, are premised upon matching animated video depictions of abstract concepts to their corresponding verbal and non-verbal symbols. Results showed individuals can consistently match different symbol modalities (words, images) to shared concept animations. Chapter 2 assesses performance in the Symbol Identification Task in neurotypical adults receiving inhibitory brain stimulation [i.e., transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the temporoparietal junction]. Chapter 3 evaluates two cases of persons with aphasia (PWA) in the same task. The goal of these studies was to isolate the neurological-constraints of the model and identify how symbol processing can be impaired. Findings showed reduced performance in the inhibitory stimulation group; highlighting the role of the temporoparietal junction in symbol processing. Results from PWA revealed one case had poor performance across both word and image symbol modalities. Chapter 4 further investigates neurological constraints of the model in an EEG/ERP study. This study assessed N400 deflections during a modified Symbol Identification Task, where frontal-central electrodes were most active. Taken together, these chapter findings suggested two cortical regions potentially support symbolic cognition, including the temporoparietal junction and left central frontal cortex. The results also suggest that impairments in one symbol modality (e.g., words in aphasia) might also present in other modalities for shared concepts. These studies offer insights regarding the cognitive mechanisms involved in symbolic cognition and how they can be impaired. With the use of contemporary tools, such as the SymCog toolkit, future research can better recognize the human capacity to understand and use symbols. / Communication Sciences

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