Bilingual aphasia as the initial presentation of a hemorrhagic stroke: Case report

With a great number of bilingual individuals in the world, there is a growing need for understanding and studying language. In cases of bilingual aphasia, patterns of language recovery can vary. Case report: The present case refers to a male patient, 52 years old, right-handed, born in Arkansas-United States of America and resident for 20 years in the city of Santos, São Paulo. The patient is bilingual fluent in English and Portuguese and had a sudden language disorder associated with a right-sided strength and sensitivity deficit; Imaging exams showed a left lenticular nucleus hemorrhagic stroke. In the language assessment, he presented an important impairment of fluency, compression and repetition in the Portuguese language and relative preservation, with slight dysfunction in fluency in the English language. Symptomatic treatment was instituted with partial improvement of the symptoms. Keywords: bilingual aphasia; hemorrhagic stroke.

Do Cues Facilitate Retrieval of Verbs in Persons with Bilingual Aphasia?

Word retrieval difficulty is commonly seen in persons with aphasia. The cues would repair word retrieval difficulty. The effect of cues during verb retrieval was gauged via Action Naming Test (ANT) in Kannada and English languages in persons with aphasia (PWAs). A total of eight persons with bilingual Aphasia (Broca's, conduction, and isolation type) were recruited for the study. The participants were expected to have a minimum quantum of verbal output were considered for the study. Specifically, the study used phonemic, semantic, and verbal contextual cues to assess verb retrieval abilities. The result of the study manifested that all participants of the study were able to perform better with phonemic cues followed by semantic and verbal contextual cues in both Kannada and English languages.

Executive control in bilingual aphasia: a systematic review

Much research has been dedicated to the effects of bilingualism on executive control (EC). For bilinguals with aphasia, the interplay with EC is complex. In this systematic review, we synthesize research on this topic and provide an overview of the current state of the field. First, we examine the evidence for EC deficits in bilingual persons with aphasia (bPWA). We then discuss the domain generality of bilingual language control impairments. Finally, we evaluate the bilingual advantage hypothesis in bPWA. We conclude that (1) EC impairments in bPWA are frequently observed, (2) experimental results on the relationship between linguistic and domain-general control are mixed, (3) bPWA with language control problems in everyday communication have domain-general EC problems, and (4) there are indications for EC advantages in bPWA. We end with directions for experimental work that could provide better insight into the intricate relationship between EC and bilingual aphasia.

Bilingual Aphasia Test in Urdu and its Clinical Implications

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.4572 How to cite this:Ali N, Rafi MS. Bilingual Aphasia Test in Urdu and its Clinical Implications. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(5):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.5.4572

Stroke or No Stroke: A Case Report of Bilingual Aphasia

Introduction: Bilingual aphasia is an atypical stroke presentation in the multilingual patient where an isolated aphasia occurs in one language while the other remains unaffected. Case Report: A multilingual male presented to the emergency department with expressive aphasia to English but who was still able to speak fluently in French. Receptive English was preserved. While his National Institute of Health Stroke Scale score was technically zero, his pure aphasia component qualified him as an exception. He regained some repetitive English, so fibrinolyitic therapy was not initiated. Conclusion: Bilingual aphasia is an indication for fibrinolysis given the impact that a pure aphasic stroke has on quality of life.

Predicting language treatment response in bilingual aphasia using neural network-based patient models

Predicting language therapy outcomes in bilinguals with aphasia (BWA) remains challenging due to the multiple pre- and poststroke factors that determine the deficits and recovery of their two languages. Computational models that simulate language impairment and treatment outcomes in BWA can help predict therapy response and identify the optimal language for treatment. Here we used the BiLex computational model to simulate the behavioral profile of language deficits and treatment response of a retrospective sample of 13 Spanish-English BWA who received therapy in one of their languages. Specifically, we simulated their prestroke naming ability and poststroke naming impairment in each language, and their treatment response in the treated and the untreated language. BiLex predicted treatment effects accurately and robustly in the treated language and captured different degrees of cross-language generalization in the untreated language in BWA. Our cross-validation approach further demonstrated that BiLex generalizes to predict treatment response for patients whose data were not used in model training. These findings support the potential of BiLex to predict therapy outcomes for BWA and suggest that computational modeling may be helpful to guide individually tailored rehabilitation plans for this population.

Bilingual aphasia after stroke. Case report

Context: With the largest number of bilingual individuals in the world, there is a growing need for understanding and studying language in different populations. In cases of bilingual aphasia, patterns of language recovery can vary. Parallel, or simultaneous, recovery in both languages is the most common type of language recovery, followed by differential recovery, where there is an improvement in one language compared to another. This case report was approved by the Ethics Committee of Universidade Metropolitana de Santos. Case Report: The present case refers to a male patient, 52 years old, righthanded, born in Arkansas-United States of America and resident for 20 years in the city of Santos, São Paulo. The patient is bilingual fluent in English and Portuguese and had a sudden deficit in strength and sensitivity in the right hemibody, associated with language disorders. Imaging exams showed a hemorrhagic lesion in the topography of the left lenticular nucleus. In the neurological evaluation, hemiparesis and proportioned and complete hemiparesis were shown on the right. In the language assessment, he presented an important impairment of fluency, compression and repetition in the Portuguese language and relative preservation, with slight dysfunction in fluency in the English language. Conclusions: Symptomatic treatment was instituted and after 12 months he had partial improvement of motor symptoms and complete aphasia.

The Relationship between Language Control, Semantic Control and Nonverbal Control

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language control, semantic control, and nonverbal control in bilingual aphasia. Twelve bilingual adults with aphasia (BPWA) and 20 age-matched bilingual adults (AMBA) completed a language control task, semantic control task, and nonverbal control task, each designed to examine resistance to distractor interference. AMBA and BPWA exhibited significant effects of control on all tasks. To examine efficiency of control, conflict magnitudes for each task and group were analyzed. Findings revealed that AMBA exhibited larger conflict magnitudes on the semantic control task and nonverbal control task compared to the language control task, whereas BPWA exhibited no difference in conflict magnitudes between the language control task and semantic control task. Further analysis revealed that BPWA semantic control conflict magnitude was smaller than AMBA semantic control conflict magnitude. Taken together, these findings suggest that BPWA present with diminished effects of semantic control. In the final analysis, conflict magnitudes across tasks were correlated. For AMBA, semantic control and nonverbal control conflict magnitudes were significantly correlated, suggesting that these two types of control are related. For BPWA, language control and nonverbal control conflict magnitudes were significantly correlated; however, this finding may capture effects of domain general cognitive control as a function of increased cognitive load, rather than domain general cognitive control as a function of language control.