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Cognition and aphasia: a discussion and a study.

UNLABELLED: The relation between other aspects of cognition and language status of individuals with aphasia is not well-established, although there is some evidence that integrity of non-linguistic skills of attention, memory, executive function and visuospatial skills can not be predicted on the basis of aphasia severity. At the same time, there is a growing realization among rehabilitation specialists, based on clinical experience and preliminary studies, that all domains of cognition are important to aphasia therapy outcomes. This paper describes a new study of the relation between linguistic and nonlinguistic skill in a group of individuals with aphasia. No significant relationship was found between linguistic and nonlinguistic skills, and between nonlinguistic skills and age, education or time post onset. Instead, individual profiles of strengths and weaknesses were found. The implications of these findings for management of aphasia patients is discussed. LEARNING OUTCOMES: Readers of this papers will be able to: list five primary domains of cognition and relate each to an aspect of aphasia therapy; describe at least three studies that examined the relation between cognition and aphasia; describe four nonlinguistic tasks of cognition that can be used with a wide range of aphasia patients.

Aged↗

Crossed Wernicke's aphasia: a case report.

Crossed aphasia is a phenomenon in which an individual sustains a lesion in the right hemisphere (typically non-language dominant), but who exhibits an aphasic syndrome. The authors present a case study of an individual with crossed aphasia (CA) in an attempt to provide anecdotal information for four questions posed by : (a). Is CA a reversal of the normal cerebral hemisphere pattern of language function? (b). Does the presence of aphasia following a right cerebral hemisphere lesion indicate that typical right hemisphere functions (e.g., visual perception) are intact? (c). How may the aphasia's presentation differ from typical left hemisphere aphasias? And (d). is the pattern of improvement following CA similar to that of typical left hemisphere aphasias? We longitudinally examined the communicative-cognitive performance of an adult man with crossed aphasia of the Wernicke's type following a cerebrovascular accident. A 21-week follow-up evaluation indicated improvements in his language functioning from our initial evaluation, but he continued to exhibit a classic, moderately severe Wernicke's aphasia.

Aged↗

Cortical hypoperfusion as a possible cause of 'subcortical aphasia'.

This study was designed to investigate whether aphasia in stroke patients with subcortical lesions ('subcortical aphasia') was due to the subcortical lesion itself or to dysfunction of cortical language zones. A consecutive series of 25 right-handed stroke patients with left hemisphere lesions verified by CT scanning were examined for aphasia in the acute stage, and two weeks, three months and six months after the insult. Cerebral angiography, CT scan and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements with the 133Xe intracarotid method were performed in the acute stage. The CT scan was repeated six months later. Seven patients had lesions which involved cortical structures. All of these were severely aphasic in the acute stage and six months later. The rCBF studies showed severe reduction of flow in the infarcts; the perfusion was incompatible with tissue viability. Eighteen patients had subcortical lesions. Eight of these were midly to severely aphasic in the acute state. Recovery was always excellent. Five patients recovered completely, while 3 showed only discrete (clinically undetectable) aphasia after six months. The rCBF demonstrated low-flow areas in the cortex overlying the deep lesions, with a blood flow which was sufficient for tissue viability, but insufficient for normal tissue function (an 'ischaemic penumbra'). The blood flow was pressure dependent (showing impaired autoregulation) in these low flow areas. Ten patients with subcortical lesions were not aphasic. Their CBF was normal. The subcortical lesions were permanent on CT scan while aphasia was transient in these patients as recovery was seen within three months. It was therefore unlikely that the subcortical lesions as such were the cause of aphasia. The present findings indicate that aphasia in patients with subcortical lesions may be due to hypoperfusion and functional loss in cortical language zones. The cortical low-flow areas were invariably confined to occluded vascular territories. These territories were kept viable by collateral circulation characterized by penumbral flow and impaired autoregulation. The patients showed excellent recovery from aphasia. We suggest that the recovery of language is caused by spontaneous arterial recanalization or expansion of collaterals, giving rise to enhancement of flow in the hypoperfused cortical penumbra.

Adult↗

Closed head trauma and aphasia.

A prospective study has been done on the relationship between closed head trauma and aphasia. The most frequent type of aphasia seen after closed head injury is an anomic aphasia. This aphasia is often associated with other defects of higher cortical function. The second most common type of aphasia is a Wernicke's aphasia. Other types of aphasia were not seen in this study. The areas of the head which when injured produce aphasia are the right orbitofrontal region and the left temporoparietal region. The prognosis for recovery appeared highly variable.

Adult↗

Global aphasia without hemiparesis: language profiles and lesion distribution.

OBJECTIVES: Global aphasia without hemiparesis (GAWH) is an uncommon stroke syndrome involving receptive and expressive language impairment, without the hemiparesis typically manifested by patients with global aphasia after large left perisylvian lesions. A few cases of GAWH have been reported with conflicting conclusions regarding pathogenesis, lesion localisation, and recovery. The current study was conducted to attempt to clarify these issues. METHODS: Ten cases of GAWH were prospectively studied with language profiles and lesion analysis; five patients had multiple lesions, four patients had a single lesion, and one had a subarachnoid haemorrhage. Eight patients met criteria for cardioembolic ischaemic stroke. RESULTS: Cluster analysis based on acute language profiles disclosed three subtypes of patients with GAWH; these clusters persisted on follow up language assessment. Each cluster evolved into a different aphasia subtype: persistent GAWH, Wernicke's aphasia, or transcortical motor aphasia (TCM). Composite lesion analysis showed that persistent GAWH was related to lesioning of the left superior temporal gyrus. Patients with acute GAWH who evolved into TCM type aphasia had common lesioning of the left inferior frontal gyrus and adjacent subcortical white matter. Patients with acute GAWH who evolved into Wernicke's type aphasia were characterised by lesioning of the left precentral and postcentral gyri. Recovery of language was poor in all but one patient. CONCLUSIONS: Although patients with acute GAWH are similar on neurological examination, they are heterogeneous with respect to early aphasia profile, language recovery, and lesion profile.

Adult↗

Test-retest reliability of fMRI during nonverbal semantic decisions in moderate-severe nonfluent aphasia patients.

Cortical reorganization in poststroke aphasia is not well understood. Few studies have investigated neural mechanisms underlying language recovery in severe aphasia patients, who are typically viewed as having a poor prognosis for language recovery. Although test-retest reliability is routinely demonstrated during collection of language data in single-subject aphasia research, this is rarely examined in fMRI studies investigating the underlying neural mechanisms in aphasia recovery. The purpose of this study was to acquire fMRI test-retest data examining semantic decisions both within and between two aphasia patients. Functional MRI was utilized to image individuals with chronic, moderate-severe nonfluent aphasia during nonverbal, yes/no button-box semantic judgments of iconic sentences presented in the Computer-assisted Visual Communication (C-ViC) program. We investigated the critical issue of intra-subject reliability by exploring similarities and differences in regions of activation during participants' performance of identical tasks twice on the same day. Each participant demonstrated high intra-subject reliability, with response decrements typical of task familiarity. Differences between participants included greater left hemisphere perilesional activation in the individual with better response to C-ViC training. This study provides fMRI reliability in chronic nonfluent aphasia, and adds to evidence supporting differences in individual cortical reorganization in aphasia recovery.

Aged↗

Aphasia following striatocapsular infarction may be explained by concomitant small cortical infarct on diffusion-weighted imaging.

BACKGROUND: The underlying mechanism of aphasia following striatocapsular infarction (SCI) remains controversial. We hypothesized that aphasia resulting from SCI might be associated with concomitant cortical lesions, which can be demonstrated by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). METHODS: We analyzed 24 patients with left SCI who underwent DWI and MR angiography within 2 days after the onset. Aphasia was assessed by the modified Korean version of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination test. RESULTS: DWI showed the presence of additional ischemic lesions involving the cortical areas in 13 of 24 SCI patients (54%). Ten patients (42%) showed aphasia. All 10 patients with aphasia had cortical lesions in addition to SCI (p = 0.0002), whereas 21% (3/14) of the nonaphasic patients had additional cortical lesions. Conventional MRI did not reveal the presence of corresponding acute cortical lesions in any of the aphasic patients. There was no difference between the patients with and without aphasia in terms of their stroke etiology. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that aphasia due to SCI in the acute stage may be attributed to direct cortical injury, whose presence can be demonstrated by DWI, even though it might be invisible on conventional imaging.

Aged↗

Epidemiology of aphasia attributable to first ischemic stroke: incidence, severity, fluency, etiology, and thrombolysis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In a geographically defined population, we assessed incidence and determinants of aphasia attributable to first-ever ischemic stroke (FEIS). METHODS: A 1-year prospective, population-based study among the permanent residents of the canton Basle City, Switzerland, was performed using multiple overlapping sources of information. RESULTS: Among 188,015 inhabitants, 269 patients had FEIS, of whom 80 (30%; 95% CI, 24 to 36) had aphasia. The overall incidence rate of aphasia attributable to FEIS amounted to 43 per 100,000 inhabitants (95% CI, 33 to 52). Aphasic stroke patients were older than nonaphasic patients. The risk of aphasia attributable to FEIS increased by 4% (95% CI, 1% to 7%), and after controlling for atrial fibrillation, by 3% (95% CI, 1% to 7%) with each year of patients' age. Gender had no effect on incidence, severity, or fluency of aphasia. Cardioembolism was more frequent in aphasic stroke patients than in nonaphasic ones (odds ratio [OR], 1.85; 95% CI, 1.07 to 3.20). Aphasic patients sought medical help earlier than nonaphasic stroke patients. Still, after controlling for stroke onset-assessment interval, aphasic stroke patients were more likely to receive thrombolysis than nonaphasics (OR, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.12 to 10.96). CONCLUSIONS: Annually, 43 of 100,000 inhabitants had aphasia resulting from first ischemic stroke. Advancing age and cardioembolism were associated with an increased risk for aphasia. Severity and fluency of aphasia were not affected by demographic variables.

Adult↗

Clinical evaluation of conversational speech fluency in the acute phase of acquired childhood aphasia: does a fluency/nonfluency dichotomy exist?

Traditional neurologic tenets claim that the clinical picture of acquired childhood aphasia is nonfluent irrespective of lesion location. In the past 20 years, however, several case studies have shown that fluent aphasic patterns can be observed in children with acquired childhood aphasia. But the question remains open as to whether the pattern of their speech characteristics is similar to the one described in adult aphasics as studies addressing spontaneous speech fluency characteristics in larger series of children with acquired childhood aphasia are scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate whether an analysis of spontaneous speech fluency as has previously been performed in adult aphasics by other investigators would also yield two distinct groups of aphasic children and, if so, whether the distribution of the different speech characteristics in both groups would reflect the rank order found in adults, that is, whether nonfluent verbal output characteristics would predominate in one group and fluent features in the other. Audiotaped and videotaped recordings of 24 cooperative children with acute acquired childhood aphasia unselected for age, gender, etiology, and aphasia severity ratings were analyzed according to 10 different speech characteristics. A cluster analysis (two-means clustering) was performed to seek the existence of two distinct groups of aphasic children. Results were confirmed, and exact P values were computed with Mann-Whitney U-tests. A two-means clustering created two distinct classes. Mann-Whitney U-tests ranked the speech characteristics according to their discriminating power between clusters. Comparing this rank order with the one previously found in adults revealed a high correlation (Spearman's rank correlation: r = .915, P << .005), thus indicating that the clusters we found were highly similar to the adult clusters. Thus, the use of the speech variables proposed to evaluate adult aphasic spontaneous speech enabled us to demonstrate a fluent/nonfluent dichotomy in a childhood aphasic population as well. This study shows that the traditional views on the uniformity of the clinical picture of acquired childhood aphasia are obsolete. Our findings corroborate data issued from several case reports of fluent acquired childhood aphasia and from the few studies focusing on speech fluency in acquired childhood aphasia, which all point to the existence of an adultlike heterogeneity of childhood aphasic syndromes. Current clinical evidence no longer supports the hypotheses of equipotentiality and progressive lateralization but favors the notion that the anatomic substrate for language representation in the child is similar to that in adults, even in young subjects.

Acute Disease↗

Therapy and support services for people with long-term stroke and aphasia and their relatives: a six-month follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of attending an aphasia therapy centre on quality of life and communication skills in people with stroke and aphasia and their relatives. DESIGN: Before and after study, six months duration. SETTING: Community-based aphasia therapy centre in the United Kingdom. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-eight men and women with aphasia following a stroke, and 22 of their relatives. Mean time since stroke was 33 months (SD 24.1). INTERVENTIONS: A range of group therapies for people with aphasia and their relatives and counselling for individuals and couples. OUTCOME MEASURES: Quantitative outcome measures were ratings of quality of life and communication for people with aphasia, and relatives' independent ratings of communication and coping with caring. Qualitative outcomes were perceptions of quality of life and communication skills using semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: Improvement was detected on all outcomes at six months. There were significant changes from baseline on the quality of life measure, mean difference 0.14 (95% confidence interval 0.02, 0.26); and the communication measure assessed by people with aphasia and their relatives, mean difference 12.8 (4.0, 21.5) and 9.7 (3.6, 15.7) respectively. The changes on the coping with caring measure were not significant, though the direction of change was positive. Qualitative interviews revealed a similar pattern of benefit in terms of increased levels of self-confidence and changes in lifestyle and levels of independence. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that this therapeutic approach has an impact on quality of life and communication for people with aphasia and their relatives.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

[Slowly progressive fluent aphasia--clinical features and an imaging study including MRI, SPECT and PET].

Three cases of slowly progressive fluent aphasia were presented. In all it began with word amnesia or stuttering, and in one to five years impairment of auditory comprehension, and reading and writing difficulties with kanji (Japanese morphograms) appeared. The neuropsychological and radiological findings were as follows: Case 1: a right-handed 65-year-old man showed severe fluent aphasia (the Western Aphasia Battery profile was rated as corresponding to Wernicke's aphasia but his score on the Token test was too high for Wernicke's aphasia) and memory disturbance. Cortical atrophy was prominent in the left temporal and parietal lobes. Hypoperfusion was evident in the bilateral anterior temporal region, suggesting the diagnosis of Pick's disease. Case 2: a right-handed 42-year-old man presented amnesic aphasia with buccofacial and ideomotor apraxia. The left frontal, temporal and parietal lobes were all atrophic. Hypoperfusion was marked in the left perisylvian and temporo-parietal regions, being similar to the pattern of Mesulam's slowly progressive aphasia. Case 3: a right-handed 55-year-old man with amnesic aphasia. Left-side dominant cortical atrophy involved the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes. The metabolic rate was lower in the left anterior temporal lobe, compatible with the finding in Pick's disease. The common clinical features of these patients were selective deficits in vocabulary, resulting in impairment of confrontation naming, and auditory comprehension. They sometimes could not recognize things even when they were told their names; case 1 could not even point to objects on command, while their syntactic comprehension was well preserved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗

[Subcortical aphasia. Neruolinguistic and x-ray computed tomography studies of 25 cases].

Twenty five cases of subcortical aphasia of vascular origin (15 haemorrhagic, 10 ischaemic), have been studied in detail by means of neurolinguistic and brain-scanning approaches. The neurolinguistic investigation allowed three groups to be distinguished. Group 1 comprised 4 cases of dysarthria. Group 2 was made up of 9 classical syndromes of aphasia: 2 global aphasias, 3 Broca's aphasias, 3 cases of Wernicke's aphasia and 1 case of conduction aphasia. Group 3 consisted in 12 unusual aphasic syndromes, i.e. 2 mixed aphasias and 10 cases which did not correspond with any traditional semiological description and are spoken of as "dissident" (or anomalous) cases. The CT scan results revealed a wide range of focal lesions for the same clinical syndrome; the 10 "dissident" cases were, in particular, associated with a large variety of lesions. After a discussion of the anatomical limits of the subcortical lesions, 2 points emerge: 1) in the current state of technological experience no anatomo-clinical correlation can be drawn as regards language-deficiencies of subcortical origin. 2) in almost half the cases a "unique" syndrome of aphasia has been observed and described, which at first might suggest the diagnosis of a subcortical lesion.

Adult↗

[Postictal aphasia and its generating mechanism in 3 patients with localization-related epilepsy].

Semiology of postictal aphasia as well as its generating mechanism involving both the epileptogenic zone and language area has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. Therefore, postictal aphasias were studied in 3 patients with localization-related epilepsy. Postictal motor aphasia was observed in a patient (patient 1) with frontal lobe epilepsy whose recovery of language function progressed from loss of language function, to Broca's aphasia, and eventually to poor spontaneous speech. Postictal sensory aphasia was observed in 2 patients (patient 2 and 3) with temporal lobe epilepsy whose recovery of language function progressed from loss of language function, to jargon, and eventually to circumlocutory anomic speech. Both patient 2 and 3 did not show fluent speech. Seizure manifestations, EEG, IMP-SPECT and MRI indicated that epileptogenic zones were in the left frontal lobe including Broca's area in patient 1, the mesial part of the left temporal lobe in patient 2, and the middle and posterior part of the left temporal lobe including Wernicke's area in patient 3. A postictal verbal dichotic listening test showed the reduction of correct responses by right ear in the patient 3. Postictal auditory verbal learning tests showed the impairment of verbal memorization in patient 2 and 3. The impairment of verbal memorization was particularly marked in patient 2. These results suggest that 1) the characteristics of postictal motor and sensory aphasia are clearly elucidated by analyzing the sequence of recovery from postictal language dysfunction, 2) postictal aphasia is generated by the epileptogenic zone involving the language area or the ictal discharges propagating to the language area, and 3) not only the disturbance of language function, but also the impairment of verbal memorization seems to participate in the disturbance of repeating and understanding sentences in the patient with postictal sensory aphasia.

Adult↗

Subcortical aphasia: two clinical-CT scan correlation studies.

Two clinical-CT scan studies were undertaken in order to investigate the frequency and the characteristics of aphasia following strictly subcortical left hemisphere lesions. In Study 1, all patients whose CT scan, carried out within a given period, showed subcortical lesions in both hemispheres, were evaluated for presence and type of aphasia; conversely, in Study 2 the records of all patients referred to our Aphasia Unit for language evaluation within a given period, were examined for presence of subcortical lesions on the CT scan. In Study 1 aphasia was found in two out of six patients. In Study 2 stabilized, strictly subcortical lesions of the left hemisphere were found in six out of 250 patients referred to the Aphasia Unit; 4 out of 6 were aphasics. Closer scrutiny of the type of language disorder in the aphasics from both studies (N = 6) suggests the possibility of differentiating two types of defect: an atypical non fluent aphasia, sometimes associated with anterior capsular-putaminal lesions, and a mild fluent aphasia, sometimes associated with posterior capsular-putaminal lesions.

Adult↗

Age and type of aphasia in patients with stroke.

The age and gender of a series of patients with different types of aphasia were analysed. Regardless of gender, patients with Broca and conduction aphasias were significantly younger than those with Wernicke and global aphasias. Considering the established cerebral localisation of each of those aphasia types, it appears that, with age, stroke in the territory of the middle cerebral artery will tend to either shift posteriorly (producing Wernicke aphasia) or occupy most of the middle cerebral artery territory (producing global aphasia). But in the absence of concurrent verification of the locus of lesion in each of the cases in our sample, a possible alternative hypothesis must be entertained: that there might be age-related changes in the neurophysiological mechanism subserving language, such that some types of aphasia would tend to be more prevalent with age, regardless of lesion location.

Adult↗

Acquired crossed aphasia in a child.

A case is reported of acquired aphasia in a 15-year-old right-handed boy, secondary to a right occipitotemporal tumour. He had aphasia, alexia, agraphia and visuospatial disturbances, which persisted after partial removal of the neoplasm. 15 days after surgery he had an episode of left focal seizures, after which the aphasia worsened. One month later he developed severe (global) aphasia associated with rostral extension of the tumour. Although crossed aphasia was previously considered common in children, there are few reports with anatomical confirmation. In the authors' own series of 31 children with acquired aphasia this is the only case of crossed aphasia, an incidence similar to that found in adult cases.

Adolescent↗

Etiology of stroke in patients with Wernicke's aphasia.

We reviewed 49 patients with Wernicke's aphasia resulting from a stroke. Their aphasia was classified on the basis of comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Wernicke's aphasia was more common in older patients and in men. Cerebral infarction occurred in 38 patients (78%) and intracerebral hemorrhage in seven (14%); the remaining four patients (8%) developed aphasia after surgery for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Embolic events were the most common etiology of Wernicke's aphasia in the 38 patients with cerebral infarction, with cardiac emboli in 40% and large-vessel atheroemboli from a carotid source in 16%. In patients with Wernicke's aphasia secondary to infarction, an embolic source should be sought. Patients with Wernicke's aphasia should have computed tomography to exclude intracerebral hemorrhage before institution of anticoagulant therapy.

Adult↗

[A case of corticobasal degeneration presenting with primary progressive aphasia].

We report a 64-year-old right-handed woman whose initial symptom was slowly progressive aphasia without generalized dementia and who was subsequently diagnosed as having corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Neurological examination revealed disturbed vertical gaze, dysarthria, rigidity of the right upper extremity, and bilateral instinctive grasp reaction. Neuropsychological assessment disclosed Broca's aphasia, buccofacial apraxia, and memory disturbance. MRI of the brain showed atrophy of the frontotemporal lobes, which was more severe on the left than on the right, especially the left inferior frontal gyrus. In most reported cases of CBD, the initial symptom is motor dysfunction of the unilateral upper or lower extremity. However, we should be cautious that among cases with CBD, there have been rare cases that begin with progressive aphasia alone. In our case, the atrophied region of the cerebral cortex was most severe around the left inferior frontal gyrus. In a few reported cases with the initial symptom of aphasia, the atrophied region corresponded considerably to the type of the aphasia. On the other hand, in those whose initial symptom was mainly motor dysfunction of the unilateral extremity, the atrophied region was remarkable in the posterior part of the frontal lobe and parietal lobe. Therefore, we suggest that in CBD the distribution of the cerebral cortical lesions differs in accordance with whether the initial symptom is motor disturbance or aphasia, and that the type of aphasia corresponds to the location of the cortical lesion.

Aphasia, Broca↗