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.

A Lexical Approach to Assessing Stress: Development and Proof-of-Concept

Objective We describe a methodology that provides a nonobtrusive means of detecting stress and related deficits through the assessment of spontaneous verbal output in ongoing communications. Background In high-demand environments, operational personnel are exposed to an array of environmental, task, and interpersonal stressors that can negatively impact performance as well as jeopardize safety and well-being. In these settings, the requirement exists to assess cognitive and emotional state “at a distance” and without interfering with ongoing performance. Method We describe a lexical approach to assessing stress effects from ongoing or spontaneous verbal output. This approach is examined in a spaceflight analog setting. Results We assess stress effects in terms of five core dimensions and develop lexical indicators of these core stress dimensions and relevant sub-facets. We establish the proof-of-concept of this approach by presenting representative data from a spaceflight analog. Conclusion This approach provides an unobtrusive means to evaluate ongoing task communications at the individual and team level in order to assess cognitive/emotional states such as workload, negative affect, attentional focus, anxiety, and team orientation. Application There are many high-demand settings in which it is valuable to monitor the potential negative effects of stress on operational personnel. These environments include spaceflight, the military, aviation, law enforcement, and medicine.

A-174 Language Impairments Following Subcortical Infarct: An Aphasia Case Study

Objective Subcortical aphasia associated with internal capsule and adjacent structure lesions often involve impaired naming, grammatical but slow dysarthric speech, impaired syntactic comprehension, repetition impairments, and apraxia. Furthermore, neuropsychiatric disturbances, such as diminished motivation and emotional dysregulation are additionally expected given connections to frontal lobe circuits. Overall, the type and severity of aphasia varies following subcortical stroke and the pattern of symptoms associated with subcortical aphasia have not been fully explored. Method The present case is a 34-year-old right-handed African-American female who sustained an acute infarct involving the left splenium, thalamus, and internal capsule, who was evaluated at bedside. Results Upon initial exam, the patient was aphasic, exhibiting difficulties with expression, fluctuating comprehension and frequent paraphasic errors. Repetition and single-step command following were impaired and apraxia was evident. She demonstrated poor insight and awareness into her current deficits. She additionally demonstrated low motivation and mild emotional dysregulation with heightened anxiety and depression. During recovery she demonstrated improved comprehension, verbal output, and reduced emotionality. Conclusions Consistent with previous studies, this case demonstrates the extreme variability of subcortical lesions in their aphasic manifestations and may suggest that subcortical aphasias are generally milder than that of cortical aphasias with generally faster symptom recovery.

Incidental Diagnosis of Pediatric Arytenoid Cartilage Dislocation During Videofluoroscopic Swallowing Study: A Case Report

Arytenoid cartilage dislocation is one of the most common mechanical causes of vocal fold immobility. The most common etiologies are intubation and external trauma, but its incidence is lower than 0.1%. Its symptoms include dysphonia, vocal fatigue, loss of vocal control, breathiness, odynophagia, dysphagia, dyspnea, and cough. Although there are some reports of arytenoid cartilage dislocation in adults, there are only few reports on its occurrence in children. It is particularly difficult to detect the symptoms of arytenoid cartilage dislocation in uncooperative pediatric patients with brain lesions without verbal output or voluntary expression. We report a case of arytenoid cartilage dislocation with incidental findings in a videofluoroscopic swallowing study performed to evaluate the swallowing function.

Assessment of Communication in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in South India: Influence of Environment

Assessment of communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is challenging in an unfamiliar clinical environment due to their limited verbal output and inadequate motivation to communicate. To analyze whether the communication sample recorded at clinic represents the child’s competence and performance, this study compared caregiver–child interaction in 24 to 48 months old children with ASD ( n = 10, M = 38.2 months) at clinic and home. The 30-minute caregiver–child interaction at clinic and home was video recorded and analyzed for frequency of pragmatic acts (initiations and responses) and duration of joint engagement. Results indicated that children initiated and responded more at home than at clinic, whereas caregivers initiated and responded more at clinic. The study provides evidence that communication profile of children with ASD in multiple environments needs to be considered for obtaining representative and reliable communication sample for child-centered assessment and intervention.

Aphasia Syndromes: Introduction and Value in Clinical Practice

Neurologic damage affecting the left cerebral hemisphere leads to impairments in comprehension and expression of language in the verbal modality (aphasia) and in the written modality (dyslexia and dysgraphia). Impairment patterns take various forms, differing in the fluency/nonfluency of verbal output and integrity of auditory comprehension, repetition, and word retrieval abilities. The divergent classifications of aphasia allow reflection on neural and psychological correlates of specific aspects of language processing in verbal and written modalities. Neurologic damage affecting the right cerebral hemisphere can lead to changes in social and prosodic communication, speaking to the role of the right hemisphere in language processing. Patterns of language breakdown following neurologic injury have implications for assessment and intervention for affected individuals. Whereas perspectives vary on interpretation of the language breakdown across disciplines, this volume’s purpose is to facilitate interactions across disciplines to improve the lives of those with aphasia and related communication disorders.