scholarly journals Effect of speech therapy intervention program for non-fluent aphasic patients after stroke

CoDAS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amália Maria Nucci Freire ◽  
Rubens José Gagliardi ◽  
Michele Devido dos Santos

ABSTRACT Purpose: the objective of this paper is to verify the effect of speech therapy intervention program in patients with non-fluent aphasia due to stroke in language tasks related to verbal fluency in semantic and phonological categories. Methods: Patients with aphasia due to stroke were selected to take part in this study. Two groups were formed: diagnosed patients with Broca/transcortical motor aphasia (GA), and a control group (healthy individuals). GA took a fluency verbal task (FAS, other complementary categories: phonological /p/ /l/ and semantic: “fruits” and “names”). These patients were all engaged in a language intervention program developed by the authors of this study. GA received speech therapy sessions (ten sessions lasting for an hour once a week), following a specific language program. After the sessions, the patients were re-evaluated. Results: GA had statistical significant improvement in the verbal fluency task after the speech therapy program (p-value < 0,001). Conclusion: The speech language therapy program we proposed was efficient enough to show improvement in the results for GA in the verbal fluency task.

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 2025-2035 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. G. Allin ◽  
N. Marshall ◽  
K. Schulze ◽  
M. Walshe ◽  
M.-H. Hall ◽  
...  

BackgroundIndividuals with a history of bipolar disorder demonstrate abnormalities of executive function, even during euthymia. The neural architecture underlying this and its relationship with genetic susceptibility for illness remain unclear.MethodWe assessed 18 remitted individuals with bipolar disorder, 19 of their unaffected first degree relatives and 19 healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a paced verbal fluency task with two levels of difficulty.ResultsBipolar patients made significantly more errors in the easy level of the verbal fluency task than their relatives or controls. Analysis of variance of fMRI data demonstrated a significant main effect of group in a large cluster including retrosplenial cortex and adjacent precuneate cortex (x=7, y=−56, x=15). All three groups showed deactivation in these areas during task performance relative to a neutral or rest condition. Group differences comprised a lesser amount of deactivation in unaffected relatives compared with controls in the easy condition [F(2, 55)=3.42, p=0.04] and in unaffected relatives compared with bipolar patients in the hard condition [F(2, 55)=4.34, p=0.018]. Comparison with the control group indicated that both bipolar patients and their relatives showed similar deficits of deactivation in retrosplenial cortex and reduced activation of left prefrontal cortex.ConclusionsBipolar disorder may be associated with an inherited abnormality of a neural network incorporating left prefrontal cortex and bilateral retrosplenial cortex.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110341
Author(s):  
Maryll Fournet ◽  
Michaela Pernon ◽  
Sabina Catalano Chiuvé ◽  
Ursula Lopez ◽  
Marina Laganaro

There is a general agreement that speaking requires attention at least for conceptual and lexical processes of utterance production. However, conflicting results have been obtained with dual-task paradigms using either repetition tasks or more generally tasks involving limited loading of lexical selection. This study aimed to investigate whether post-lexical processes recruit attentional resources. We used a new dual-task paradigm in a set of experiments where a continuous verbal production task involved either high or low demand on lexical selection processes. Experiment 1 evaluates lexical and post-lexical processes with a semantic verbal fluency task, whereas experiments 2 and 3 focus on post-lexical processes with a non-propositional speech task. In each experiment, two types of non-verbal secondary tasks were used: processing speed (simple manual reaction times) or inhibition (Go/No-go). In Experiment 1, a dual-task cost was observed on the semantic verbal fluency task and each non-verbal task. In Experiment 2, a dual-task cost appeared on the non-verbal tasks but not on the speech task. The same paradigm was used with older adults (Experiment 3), as increased effort in post-lexical processes has been associated with ageing. For older adults, a dual-task cost was also observed on the non-propositional verbal task when speech was produced with the inhibition non-verbal task. The results suggest an attentional cost on post-lexical processes and strategic effects in the resolution of the dual-task.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-148
Author(s):  
Tatiana B. Freitas ◽  
José Eduardo Pompeu ◽  
Briana R. B. Moraes ◽  
Sandra M. A. A. Pompeu ◽  
Keyte G. Silva ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) causes loss of automaticity and impairment in dual task (DT) performance. AIM: To investigate the performance and pattern of prioritization of individuals with PD in motor and cognitive DT. METHOD: An observational, transversal, comparative study assessed 20 individuals with PD between stages 1.5 to 3 of the modified Hoehn and Yahr scale. Performance was assessed during the execution of manual dexterity and sit-to-stand tasks, in a single task or in association with a verbal fluency task. RESULTS: There was a loss of performance in both dual task conditions. The cost of verbal fluency was higher than the cost of manual dexterity function. CONCLUSION: Individuals with PD showed worse DT performance and prioritized the manual dexterity task. There was no prioritization between sit-to-stand and verbal fluency. These findings suggest that the nature of tasks can influence the prioritization of dual tasks.


2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN PAUL WOODS ◽  
J. COBB SCOTT ◽  
DANIELLE A. SIRES ◽  
IGOR GRANT ◽  
ROBERT K. HEATON ◽  
...  

Action (verb) fluency is a newly developed verbal fluency task that requires the examinee to rapidly generate as many verbs (i.e., “things that people do”) as possible within 1 min. Existing literature indicates that action fluency may be more sensitive to frontal–basal ganglia loop pathophysiology than traditional noun fluency tasks (e.g., animal fluency), which is consistent with the hypothesized neural dissociation between noun and verb retrieval. In the current study, a series of analyses were undertaken to examine the psychometric properties of action fluency in a sample of 174 younger healthy participants. The first set of analyses describes the development of demographically adjusted normative data for action fluency. Next, a group of hypothesis-driven correlational analyses reveals significant associations between action fluency and putative tests of executive functions, verbal working memory, verbal fluency, and information processing speed, but not between action fluency and tests of learning or constructional praxis. The final set of analyses demonstrates the test–retest stability of the action fluency test and provides standards for determining statistically reliable changes in performance. In sum, this study enhances the potential clinical applicability of action fluency by providing demographically adjusted normative data and demonstrating evidence for its reliability and construct validity. (JINS, 2005,11, 408–415.)


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evy Woumans ◽  
Shauni Van Herck ◽  
Esli Struys

The bilingual advantage is a heavily debated topic in research on bilingualism. The current study further investigated one specific aspect of bilingualism proposed to be a determining factor for the bilingual advantage, namely language switching behaviour. We investigated whether a bilingual advantage can be detected in the executive functions of inhibition and shifting by comparing monolingual and bilingual participants on a Simon task and a colour–shape switching task. Furthermore, we examined the relation between these executive functions and language switching proficiency, as measured by a semantic verbal fluency task. In addition, the current study set out to investigate the convergence of self-reported language switching estimates and actual language switching proficiency. Results revealed a bilingual advantage for shifting, but not for inhibition. However, this bilingual advantage for shifting was not related to language switching behaviour. Additionally, we were unable to identify a relation between objective and subjective measures of switching abilities. These findings seem to confirm the existence of a bilingual advantage, but also once again validate its elusiveness, as demonstrated by the absence of bilingual benefits on our measure of inhibition. It furthermore questions the validity of switching measures employed in previous studies.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 586-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIANA V. BALDO ◽  
ARTHUR P. SHIMAMURA ◽  
DEAN C. DELIS ◽  
JOEL KRAMER ◽  
EDITH KAPLAN

The ability to generate items belonging to categories in verbal fluency tasks has been attributed to frontal cortex. Nonverbal fluency (e.g., design fluency) has been assessed separately and found to rely on the right hemisphere or right frontal cortex. The current study assessed both verbal and nonverbal fluency in a single group of patients with focal, frontal lobe lesions and age- and education-matched control participants. In the verbal fluency task, participants generated items belonging to both letter cues (F, A, and S) and category cues (animals and boys' names). In the design fluency task, participants generated novel designs by connecting dot arrays with 4 straight lines. A switching condition was included in both verbal and design fluency tasks and required participants to switch back and forth between different sets (e.g., between naming fruits and furniture). As a group, patients with frontal lobe lesions were impaired, compared to control participants, on both verbal and design fluency tasks. Patients with left frontal lesions performed worse than patients with right frontal lesions on the verbal fluency task, but the 2 groups performed comparably on the design fluency task. Both patients and control participants were impacted similarly by the switching conditions. These results suggest that verbal fluency is more dependent on left frontal cortex, while nonverbal fluency tasks, such as design fluency, recruit both right and left frontal processes. (JINS, 2001, 7, 586–596.)


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