Agrammatic patterns in Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from tense,agreement, and aspect

Background: Little research has been conducted on functional categories in probable Alzheimer's disease (pAD). Furthermore, the findings are contradictory, since some studies report ceiling performance on tense and/or subject–verb agreement (Kaprinis & Stavrakaki, 2007 Kaprinis, S. and Stavrakaki, S. 2007. Morphological and syntactic abilities in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 103: 59–60. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.07.044[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Kavé & Levy, 2003 Kavé, G. and Levy, Y. 2003. Sensitivity to gender, person and tense inflection by persons with Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 87: 267–277. doi:10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00106-8[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), whereas others report morphosyntactic deficits and agrammatic profiles (e.g., Altmann, Kempler, & Andersen, 2001 Altmann, L. G. P., Kempler, D. and Andersen, E. S. 2001. Speech errors in Alzheimer's disease: Reevaluating morphosyntactic preservation. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 44: 1069–1082. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2001/085)[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).

Aims: This study investigates the ability of Greek-speaking pAD individuals to produce and judge subject–verb agreement, tense, and aspect. Given pAD individuals have working memory limitations (e.g., Baddeley, 1996 Baddeley, A. 1996. Exploring the central executive. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49: 5–28. doi:10.1080/713755608[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and given the differential processing demands of agreement, tense and aspect (e.g., Fyndanis, Varlokosta, & Tsapkini, 2012a Fyndanis, V., Varlokosta, S. and Tsapkini, K. 2012a. Agrammatic production: Interpretable features and selective impairment in verb inflection. Lingua, 122: 1134–1147. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2012.05.004[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), pAD participants are expected to perform better on agreement than on tense/aspect. Based on the hypothesis that reference to the past is computationally more demanding than reference to the future/present (e.g., Bastiaanse et al., 2011 Bastiaanse, R., Bamyaci, E., Hsu, C-J., Lee, J., Yarbay Duman, T. and Thompson, C. K. 2011. Time reference in agrammatic aphasia: A cross-linguistic study. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 24: 652–673. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2011.07.001[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), a within-tense dissociation is expected to emerge. Further, on the assumption that unmarked values of functional categories are less demanding than marked values (e.g., Lapointe, 1985 Lapointe, S. 1985. A theory of verb form use in the speech of agrammatic aphasics. Brain and Language, 24: 100–155. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(85)90100-2[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the imperfective (unmarked) aspect is expected to be better preserved than the perfective (marked) aspect.

Methods & Procedures: Ten Greek-speaking mild pAD individuals and six healthy controls participated in a sentence completion task, a grammaticality judgement task, and a sentence–picture matching task. Non-parametric tests were used for analysis of results.

Outcomes & Results: PAD participants were found to be significantly more impaired in aspect compared to tense and agreement, in both production and grammaticality judgement/comprehension. Agreement was found significantly better preserved than tense in production. Similar patterns of performance have been attested in agrammatism (e.g., Fyndanis et al., 2012a Fyndanis, V., Varlokosta, S. and Tsapkini, K. 2012a. Agrammatic production: Interpretable features and selective impairment in verb inflection. Lingua, 122: 1134–1147. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2012.05.004[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Reference to the past and reference to the future did not dissociate, whereas the imperfective aspect was found to be significantly more impaired than the perfective aspect in production.

Conclusions: PAD participants' better performance on producing agreement, compared to tense/aspect, is accounted for in terms of the differential demands these categories pose on the processing system. Agreement is computationally less demanding than tense/aspect, because the former involves processing of grammatical information only, whereas the latter involve processing and integration of grammatical and extralinguistic/conceptual information. The preponderance of tense over aspect is attributed to the subjectivity of the latter, which renders it either a category “difficult” to test, or a computationally more demanding condition. The results also show that reference to the past is as demanding as reference to the future. The hypothesis that unmarked values are easier than marked ones is not supported by our data.     

(Morpho)syntactic comprehension in agrammatic aphasia: Evidence from Greek

Background: A number of hypotheses have been formulated to account for comprehension data in agrammatic aphasia. They explain deficits in comprehending specific structures, such as semantically reversible non-canonical sentences, for example, Trace Deletion Hypothesis (TDH, Grodzinsky, 1986 Grodzinsky, Y. 1986. Language deficit and the theory of syntax. Brain and Language, 27: 135–159. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(86)90009-X[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1990 Grodzinsky, Y. 1990. Theoretical perspectives on language deficits, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1995 Grodzinsky, Y. 1995. A restrictive theory of agrammatic comprehension. Brain and Language, 51: 26–51. doi:10.1006/brln.1995.1039[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), or functional categories, for example, Tree Pruning Hypothesis (TPH, e.g., Friedmann, 2006 Friedmann, N. 2006. Generalizations on variations in comprehension and production: A further source of variation and a possible account. Brain and Language, 96: 151–153. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2005.06.002[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); Tense Underspecification Hypothesis (TUH, Wenzlaff & Clahsen, 2004 Wenzlaff, M. and Clahsen, H. 2004. Tense and agreement in German agrammatism. Brain and Language, 89: 57–68. doi:10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00298-0[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2005 Wenzlaff, M. and Clahsen, H. 2005. Finiteness and verb-second in German agrammatism. Brain and Language, 92: 33–44. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.05.006[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); Interpretable Features’ Impairment Hypothesis (IFIH; e.g., Varlokosta et al., 2006 Varlokosta, S., Valeonti, N., Kakavoulia, M., Lazaridou, M., Economou, A. and Protopapas, A. 2006. The breakdown of functional categories in Greek aphasia: Evidence from agreement, tense, and aspect. Aphasiology, 20: 723–743. doi:10.1080/02687030500513703[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Several studies, however, report evidence contradicting these theories (e.g., Caramazza, Capasso, Capitani, & Miceli, 2005 Caramazza, A., Capasso, R., Capitani, E. and Miceli, G. 2005. Patterns of comprehension performance in agrammatic Broca's aphasia: A test of the Trace Deletion Hypothesis. Brain and Language, 94: 43–53. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2004.11.006[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Dickey, Milman, & Thompson, 2008 Dickey, M. W., Milman, L. H. and Thompson, C. K. 2008. Judgment of functional morphology in agrammatic aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21: 35–65. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.08.001[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and propose new accounts to explain the comprehension deficits in agrammatic aphasia, for example, Distributed Morphology Account (DMA, Dickey et al., 2008 Dickey, M. W., Milman, L. H. and Thompson, C. K. 2008. Judgment of functional morphology in agrammatic aphasia. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21: 35–65. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.08.001[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).

Aims: Against the background above, this study investigates the ability of three Greek-speaking agrammatic individuals to comprehend a wide range of structures and functional categories: semantically reversible (canonical) active and (non-canonical) passive sentences, Complementizer Phrase, subject-verb Agreement, Tense, and Aspect.

Methods & Procedures: We administered: (a) two sentence-picture matching tasks to test comprehension of reversible active and passive sentences, and Tense; (b) a sentence grammaticality judgement task to test judgement of Tense, Aspect, and subject-verb Agreement; and (c) a picture-pointing task to test comprehension of Complementizer Phrase.

Outcomes & Results: (a) Two of the three agrammatic participants performed at chance on reversible passive sentences and above chance on active sentences. The third participant performed equally high on the two sentence types. Two participants performed at chance on Tense comprehension and one above chance. (b) The three participants were selectively or across-the-board impaired in judgement of Agreement, Tense, and Aspect. One of the two selectively affected participants had chance performance on Aspect and above chance performance on Agreement and Tense. The other one performed at chance on Aspect and Tense, and above chance on Agreement. The third participant's performance was equally poor on all three categories. (c) All three agrammatic participants performed above chance on the comprehension of Complementizer Phrase.

Conclusions: In comprehension/judgement, canonical and non-canonical sentences do not dissociate in all agrammatic speakers, while functional categories associated with the verb morphology may be compromised in the face of relatively well-preserved categories that are located higher in the syntactic hierarchy. All three agrammatic participants support the DMA, and two of them support the TDH. Instead, none of them provided support to the TPH, TUH, and IFIH.     

Psychometric Evaluation of Romanian Translations of the Behavior Problems Inventory-01 and the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form

Psychometric properties of Romanian translations of the Behavior Problems Inventory-01 (BPI-01; Rojahn, Matson, Lott, Esbensen, & Smalls, 2001 Rojahn, J., Matson, J. L., Lott, D., Esbensen, A. J. and Smalls, Y. 2001. The Behavior Problems Inventory: An instrument for the assessment of self-injury, stereotyped behavior, and aggression/destruction in individuals with developmental disabilities. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31: 577–588. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF; Aman, Tassé, Rojahn, & Hammer, 1996 Aman, M. G., Tassé, M. J., Rojahn, J. and Hammer, D. 1996. The Nisonger CBRF: A child behavior rating form for children with developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 17: 41–57. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) were explored. Respondents completed the instruments for 115 children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Internal consistency of both instruments' total scales was good to excellent (Cronbach's α ranging from .88 to .95) and the subscale internal consistencies were fair to excellent (with α ranging from .74 to .94). The results based on bivariate Spearman correlations and multiple regression analyses provided strong convergent and discriminant validity of both instruments. Overall, the Romanian versions of the behavior rating scales had very good reliability (internal consistencies) and convergent and discriminant validity. It is hoped that this study will be a catalyst for Romanian clinicians and researchers as well as for transcultural researchers working with Romanian individuals with intellectual disabilities to continue the exploration of the utility and psychometric quality not only of the BPI-01 and the NCBRF but also of other English language psychopathology assessment instruments.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Behavior Problems Inventory-01 and the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form with Children and Adolescents

This study was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of 2 assessment instruments, the Behavior Problems Inventory-01 (BPI-01; Rojahn, Matson, Lott, Esbensen, & Smalls, 2001 Rojahn, J., Matson, J. L., Lott, D., Esbensen, A. J. and Smalls, Y. 2001. The Behavior Problems Inventory: An instrument for the assessment of self-injury, stereotyped behavior, and aggressive/destructive behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31: 577–588. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF; Aman, Tassé, Rojahn, & Hammer, 1996 Aman, M. G., Tassé, M. J., Rojahn, J. and Hammer, D. 1996. The Nisonger CBRF: A child behavior rating form for children with developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 17: 41–57. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The sample consisted of 237 ethnically diverse children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities who ranged in age from 4 to 22 years. Reliability parameters included internal consistency, interteacher agreement, teacher-parent agreement, and test-retest reliability. Factorial validity was assessed first by bivariate Spearman rank (ρ) correlations and then by examining the factor structure fit via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Convergent and discriminant validity was assessed by multiple regression analyses across the 2 instruments. Reliability coefficients (internal consistency, interteacher agreement, and test-retest reliability) of the BPI-01 and of the NCBRF subscales ranged from fair to excellent and from poor to excellent, respectively. The CFA suggested a poor fit between the present and the original BPI-01 and NCBRF factor structures, although item-total correlations were reasonable. Convergent and discriminant validity between the BPI-01 and the NCBRF, however, was strong. Limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for future studies are presented.     

Methodological Problems in the Neuropsychological Assessment of Effects of Exposure to Welding Fumes and Manganese

Recently, Kaiser (2003) Kaiser, J. 2003. Manganese: A high-octane dispute. Science, 300: 926–928.  [Google Scholar] raised concerns over the increase in brain damage claims reportedly due to exposure to welding fumes. In the present article, we discuss methodological problems in conducting neuropsychological research on the effects of welding exposure, using a recent paper by Bowler et al. (2003) Bowler, R. M., Gysens, S., Diamond, E., Booty, A., Hartney, C. and Roels, H. A. 2003. Neuropsychological sequelae of exposure to welding fumes in a group of occupationally exposed men. International Journal of Hygiene & Environmental Health, 206: 517–529. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] as an example to illustrate problems common in the neurotoxicity literature. Our analysis highlights difficulties in conducting such quasi-experimental investigations, including subject selection bias, litigation effects on symptom report and neuropsychological test performance, response bias, and scientifically inadequate casual reasoning.     

Chance in agrammatic sentence comprehension: What does it really mean? Evidence from eye movements of German agrammatic aphasic patients

Background: In addition to the canonical subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, German also allows for non-canonical order (OVS), and the case-marking system supports thematic role interpretation. Previous eye-tracking studies (Kamide et al., 2003 Kamide, Y., Scheepers, C. and Altmann, G. M. 2003. Integration of syntactic and semantic information in predictive processing: Cross-linguistic evidence from German and English. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research, 32: 37–54. doi: 10.1023/A:1021933015362 [Google Scholar]; Knoeferle, 2007 Knoeferle, P. 2007. “Comparing the time-course of processing initially ambiguous and unambiguous German SVO/OVS sentences in depicted events”. In Eye movement research. A window on mind and brain, Edited by: van Gompel, R., Fischer, M., Murray, W. and Hill, R. 517–531. Oxford, , UK/Amsterdam: Elsevier.  [Google Scholar]) have shown that unambiguous case information in non-canonical sentences is processed incrementally. For individuals with agrammatic aphasia, comprehension of non-canonical sentences is at chance level (Burchert et al., 2003 Burchert, F., De Bleser, R. and Sonntag, K. 2003. Does morphology make the difference? Agrammatic sentence comprehension in German. Brain and Language, 87: 323–342. doi: 10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00132-9[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The trace deletion hypothesis (Grodzinsky 1995 Grodzinsky, Y. 1995. A restrictive theory of agrammatic comprehension. Brain and Language, 50: 27–51. doi: 10.1006/brln.1995.1039[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2000 Grodzinsky, Y. 2000. The neurology of syntax: Language use without Broca's area. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23: 1–71. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X00002399[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) claims that this is due to structural impairments in syntactic representations, which force the individual with aphasia (IWA) to apply a guessing strategy. However, recent studies investigating online sentence processing in aphasia (Caplan et al., 2007 Caplan, D., Waters, G., DeDe, G., Michaud, J. and Reddy, A. 2007. A study of syntactic processing in aphasia I: Behavioral (psycholinguistic) aspects. Brain and Language, 101: 103–150. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2006.06.225[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Dickey et al., 2007 Dickey, M. W., Choy, J. J. and Thompson, C. K. 2007. Real-time comprehension of Wh-movement in aphasia: Evidence from eyetracking while listening. Brain and Language, 100: 1–22. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2006.06.004[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found that divergences exist in IWAs' sentence-processing routines depending on whether they comprehended non-canonical sentences correctly or not, pointing rather to a processing deficit explanation.

Aims: The aim of the current study was to investigate agrammatic IWAs' online and offline sentence comprehension simultaneously in order to reveal what online sentence-processing strategies they rely on and how these differ from controls' processing routines. We further asked whether IWAs' offline chance performance for non-canonical sentences does indeed result from guessing.

Methods & Procedures: We used the visual-world paradigm and measured eye movements (as an index of online sentence processing) of controls (N?=?8) and individuals with aphasia (N?=?7) during a sentence–picture matching task. Additional offline measures were accuracy and reaction times.

Outcomes & Results: While the offline accuracy results corresponded to the pattern predicted by the TDH, IWAs' eye movements revealed systematic differences depending on the response accuracy.

Conclusions: These findings constitute evidence against attributing IWAs' chance performance for non-canonical structures to mere guessing. Instead, our results support processing deficit explanations and characterise the agrammatic parser as deterministic and inefficient: it is slowed down, affected by intermittent deficiencies in performing syntactic operations, and fails to compute reanalysis even when one is detected.     

Modified ACT and CART in severe aphasia

Background: Anagram and Copy Treatment (ACT) and Copy and Recall Treatment (CART) have been shown to improve written communication for those with severe aphasia (Beeson, 1999 Beeson, P. M. 1999. Treating acquired writing impairment: Strengthening graphemic representations. Aphasiology, 13: 767–785. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Beeson, Hirsch, & Rewega, 2002 Beeson, P. M., Hirsch, F. M. and Rewega, M. A. 2002. Successful single-word writing treatment: Experimental analysis of four cases. Aphasiology, 16: 473–491. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Beeson, Rising, & Volk, 2003 Beeson, P. M., Rising, K. and Volk, J. 2003. Writing treatment for severe aphasia: Who benefits?. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46: 1038–1060. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). More recently, the addition of a spoken repetition component to the CART programme has been suggested to enhance oral naming in moderate aphasia (Beeson & Egnor, 2006 Beeson, P. M. and Egnor, H. 2006. Combining treatment for written and spoken naming. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 12: 816–827. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Wright, Marshall, Wilson, & Page, 2008 Wright, H. H., Marshall, R. C., Wilson, K. B. and Page, J. L. 2008. Using a written cueing hierarchy to improve verbal naming in aphasia. Aphasiology, 22: 522–536. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and in cases with co-existing apraxia of speech (AOS) (de Riesthal, 2007 de Riesthal, M. Changes in written and spoken naming with a modified CART programme. Paper presented at the American Speech and Hearing Association. Boston, MA [Google Scholar]). No studies have investigated the use of a modified ACT and CART with spoken repetition in individuals with severe aphasia and AOS.

Aims: The purpose of the study was to examine ACT and CART modified with spoken naming repetition, using visual and auditory stimuli in the ACT sessions and home practice videos in the CART sessions, for individuals with severe aphasia.

Methods & Procedures: Three individuals, RC, AC, and MJ, with severe aphasia and coexisting AOS post left middle cerebral artery strokes participated in a 3-month programme. Participants were enrolled in modified ACT and CART with spoken repetition of the target word. For the CART programme a video was created for each word in a treatment set to facilitate repetition in the home practice programme. Probes of spoken and written performance were obtained at the onset of each session, and during baseline, treatment, and follow-up maintenance

Outcomes & Results: All participants improved in their ability to write the treatment stimuli. A 5-point scoring system (Helm-Estabrooks & Albert, 2003 Helm-Estabrooks, N. and Albert, M. L. 2003. Manual of Aphasia and Aphasia Therapy, Austin, TX: Pro-.  [Google Scholar]) was a more sensitive tool than the traditional binary scoring. None of the participants improved in the spoken naming condition with task stimuli. Mild improvement was noted in comparing pre- and post-test naming for MJ.

Conclusions: Our study supports evidence that ACT and CART may improve written naming skills in persons with severe aphasia. The inclusion of spoken repetition in the home practice CART programme may not be appropriate for cases with severe aphasia with AOS. However, further research using the technique with moderate aphasia with AOS may reveal that the technique of practice with auditory and visual stimuli is beneficial. The ease of using digital video tools with computer or augmentative devices has exciting and practical clinical application.     

A case of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia with severe insular atrophy

Insular degeneration has been linked to symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Presented in this case is a patient exhibiting semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, behavioral disturbance. Upon autopsy, he was found to have severe insular atrophy. In addition, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors were ineffective in reducing symptoms of obsessive–compulsive behaviors or emotional blunting. This case suggests that Seeley et al.'s (2007 Seeley, W. W., Allman, J. M., Carlin, D. A. and et al. 2007. Divergent social functioning in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer disease: Reciprocal networks and neuronal evolution. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 21: S50–S57. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 21, S50) hypothesis that von Economo neurons and fork cell-rich brain regions, particularly in the insula, are targeted in additional subtypes of FTD beyond the behavioral variant.     

Depression as a Function of Eating Disorder Diagnostic Status and Gender

The purpose of the present study was to examine depressive symptoms as a function of eating disorder (ED) diagnostic status and gender. A demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996 Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Brown, G. K. 1996. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory, 2nd, San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.  [Google Scholar]), and the Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Q-EDD; Mintz, O'Halloran, Mulholland & Schneider, 1997 Mintz, L. B., O'Halloran, M. S, Mulholland, A. M. and Schneider, P. A. 1997. Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses: Reliability and validity of operationalizing DSM–IV criteria into a self-report format: Correction. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 44: 63–79. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) were administered to a nonclinical sample of college-aged men (n = 115) and women (n = 136). Contrast tests revealed significant differences in mean BDI-II scores as a function of Q-EDD diagnostic status. This effect did not differ as a function of gender and the pattern was the same for both cognitive and somatic-affective depressive symptoms. The nature of the comorbid relationship between ED and depressive symptoms appears markedly similar across both genders.     

What goes wrong during passive sentence production in agrammatic aphasia: An eyetracking study

Background: Production of passive sentences is often impaired in agrammatic aphasia and has been attributed both to an underlying structural impairment (e.g., Schwartz, Saffran, Fink, Myers, & Martin, 1994 Schwartz, M. F., Saffran, E. M., Fink, R. B., Myers, J. L. and Martin, N. 1994. Mapping therapy: A treatment program for agrammatism. Aphasiology, 8: 19–54. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and to a morphological deficit (e.g., Caplan & Hanna, 1998 Caplan, D. and Hanna, J. 1998. Sentence production by aphasic patients in a constrained task. Brain and Language, 63: 184–218. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Faroqi-Shah & Thompson, 2003 Faroqi-Shah, Y. and Thompson, C. K. 2003. Effect of lexical cues on the production of active and passive sentences in Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia. Brain and Language, 85: 409–426. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). However, the nature of the deficit in passive sentence production is not clear due to methodological issues present in previous studies.

Aims: This study examined active and passive sentence production in nine agrammatic aphasic speakers under conditions of structural priming using eyetracking to test whether structural impairments occur independently of morphological impairments and whether the underlying nature of error types is reflected in on-line measures, i.e., eye movements and speech onset latencies.

Methods & Procedures: Nine participants viewed and listened to a prime sentence in either active or passive voice, and then repeated it aloud. Next, a target picture appeared on the computer monitor and participants were instructed to describe it using the primed sentence structure.

Outcomes & Results: Participants made substantial errors in sentence structure, i.e., passives with role reversals (RRs) and actives-for-passives, but few errors in passive morphology. Longer gaze durations to the first-produced noun for passives with RRs as compared to correct passives were found before and during speech. For actives-for-passives, however, this pattern was found during speech, but not before speech.

Conclusions: The deficit in passive sentence production does not solely arise from a morphological deficit, rather it stems, at least in part, from a structural level impairment. The underlying nature of passives with RRs is qualitatively different from that of actives-for-passives, which cannot be clearly differentiated with off-line testing methodology.     

How justice can affect jury: Training abstract words promotes generalisation to concrete words in patients with aphasia

Developing language treatments that not only improve trained items but also promote generalisation to untrained items is a major focus in aphasia research. This study is a replication and extension of previous work which found that training abstract words in a particular context-category promotes generalisation to concrete words but not vice versa (Kiran, Sandberg, & Abbott, 2009 Kiran, S., Sandberg, C., & Abbott, K. (2009). Treatment for lexical retrieval using abstract and concrete words in persons with aphasia: Effect of complexity. Aphasiology, 23, 835–853. doi: 10.1080/02687030802588866[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Twelve persons with aphasia (five female) with varying types and degrees of severity participated in a generative naming treatment based on the Complexity Account of Treatment Efficacy (CATE; Thompson, Shapiro, Kiran, & Sobecks, 2003 Thompson, C., Shapiro, L., Kiran, S., & Sobecks, J. (2003). The role of syntactic complexity in treatment of sentence deficits in agrammatic aphasia: The Complexity Account of Treatment Efficacy (CATE). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 591–607. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2003/047)[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). All participants were trained to generate abstract words in a particular context-category by analysing the semantic features of the target words. Two other context-categories were used as controls. Ten of the twelve participants improved on the trained abstract words in the trained context-category. Eight of the ten participants who responded to treatment also generalised to concrete words in the same context-category. These results suggest that this treatment is both efficacious and efficient. We discuss possible mechanisms of training and generalisation effects.     

Extracting variant and invariant information from faces: The neural substrates of gaze detection and sex categorization

Abstract

Guided by influential models of face processing, efforts have been expended to uncover the neural substrates subserving the many facets of face perception. Extending this work, the present study used functional brain imaging (fMRI) to explore the relationship between the operations supporting the explicit extraction of sex and gaze-related information from faces. The brain imaging data showed the right superior temporal sulcus to be preferentially involved during assessments of gaze direction and a region of the left fusiform gyrus to be involved during sex categorization. These results provide support for the distributed face-processing model advanced by Haxby and colleagues (2000 Haxby, J. V., Hoffman, E. A. and Gobbini, I. M. 2000. The distributed human neural system for face perception. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4: 223–233. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).     

The Walking Corsi Test (WalCT): A Normative Study of Topographical Working Memory in a Sample of 4- to 11-Year-Olds

We report normative data on topographical working memory collected through the Walking Corsi Test (WalCT; Piccardi et al., 2008 Piccardi, L. , Iaria, G. , Ricci, M. , Bianchini, F. , Zompanti, L. , & Guariglia, C. (2008). Walking in the Corsi test: Which type of memory do you need? Neuroscience Letters , 432 , 127–131.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) for developing a standard administration procedure to be used in clinical and educational practice. A total of 268 typically developing Italian children aged 4–11 years performed both WalCT and Corsi Block-Tapping Test (CBT; Corsi, 1972 Corsi, P. M. (1972). Human memory and the medial temporal region of the brain . McGill University, Montreal: Unpublished doctoral dissertation. [Google Scholar]) a well-known visuo-spatial memory test. WalCT has already been validated in adults, demonstrating sensitivity in detecting topographical memory deficits even in individuals who have no other memory impairments. Our results showed that age, but not sex, affected performances. Both girls and boys had a larger span on the CBT than the WalCT. The youngest group did not differ in performing WalCT and CBT, but from 5.6 years of age children performed better on CBT than WalCT, suggesting that memory in reaching space develops before topographical memory. Only after 5 years of age do children learn to process specifically topographical stimuli, suggesting that this happens when their environmental knowledge becomes operational and they increase environmental independence. We also discuss the importance to introduce WalCT in the clinical assessment.     

Connectionist diagnosis of lexical disorders in aphasia

Background: In the cognitive neurolinguistic approach to lexical deficits in aphasia, impaired levels of processing are localised in a cognitive model. Model-oriented treatment may target these impaired components. Thus a precise assessment of the disorder is crucial. Connectionist models add to this by using computer simulation to specify the details of the functioning of these components. The connectionist semantic-phonological model of lexical access (Dell, Martin, & Schwartz, 2007 Dell, G. S., Martin, N. and Schwartz, M. F. 2007. A case-series test of the interactive two-step model of lexical access: Predicting word repetition from picture naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 56: 490–520. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Schwartz, Dell, Martin, Gahl, & Sobel, 2006 Schwartz, M. F., Dell, G. S., Martin, N., Gahl, S. and Sobel, P. 2006. A case-series test of the interactive two-step model of lexical access: Evidence from picture naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 54: 223–264.  [Google Scholar]) explores the impairment by simulating error patterns in naming and repetition.

Aims: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the model's range of application as a diagnostic tool, and to derive recommendations for the model's use in clinical settings.

Methods & Procedures: We demonstrate how we adapted the error analysis to 15 German-speaking patients with aphasia, analysed the model's accuracy in assessing naming and repetition disorders, and explained deviations between the error pattern produced by each patient and the one produced by the model's simulation by appealing to an extended version of the model.

Outcomes & Results: Overall, the model yielded good fits of the patients' error patterns. Larger model–patient deviations could be explained by the model's limited set of lesionable components.

Conclusions: The “connectionist diagnosis” of naming and repetition disorders in the semantic-phonological model is a reasonable tool in model-oriented assessment. However, the diagnosis needs to be complemented by further language tests.     

Who benefits from treatment for executive dysfunction after brain injury? Negative effects of emotion recognition deficits

Deficits in emotion recognition, a crucial aspect of social cognition, are common after serious brain injury, as are executive deficits. Since social cognition and executive function are considered to be separate constructs, our first aim was to examine the presence of emotion recognition problems in brain injury patients with dysexecutive problems. We studied 65 brain injury patients of mixed aetiology participating in a randomised controlled trial evaluating the effects of a multifaceted treatment for executive dysfunction (Spikman, Boelen, Lamberts, Brouwer, & Fasotti, 2010 Spikman, J. M., Boelen, D. H., Lamberts, K. F., Brouwer, W. H., & Fasotti, L. (2010). Effects of a multifaceted treatment program for executive dysfunction after acquired brain injury on indications of executive functioning in daily life. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16(1), 118–129. doi: 10.1017/S1355617709991020[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and 84 matched controls with a test for emotion recognition. Results showed that, in patients with acquired brain injury exhibiting executive deficits, emotion recognition deficits are also present. Male patients are more impaired than female patients, irrespective of aetiology. Our second aim was to investigate whether emotion recognition problems negatively predict the results of the treatment programme. Pre-treatment emotion recognition performance significantly predicted resumption of roles in daily life (Role Resumption List; RRL) and performance on an ecologically valid test for everyday executive functioning (Executive Secretarial Task; EST) post-treatment and, in addition, interfered negatively with treatment condition. Moreover, worse pre-treatment emotion recognition skills affect the learning of compensatory strategies for executive dysfunction negatively, whereas pre-treatment dysexecutive deficits do not.     

Decision-making after Traumatic Brain Injury in Children: A Preliminary Study

Decision-making under conditions of uncertainty was studied in 11 children with moderate to severe post-acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) using a modification of the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara et al., 1994 Bechara, A, Damasio, AR, Damasio, H and Anderson, SW. 1994. Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50: 7–15. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We hypothesized that decision-making would be compromised in children with TBI. The results revealed that when divided into subgroups by lesion location, children with lesions in the amygdala (AM) were impaired on modified gambling task performance, but children with ventromedial (VM) lesions did not appear to be impaired on the task. These results are in contrast to studies of decision-making in adults with focal lesions of vascular etiology.     

A randomised controlled crossover trial evaluating Television Assisted Prompting (TAP) for adults with acquired brain injury

Assistive technologies for cognition (ATC) provide an effective means to compensate for prospective memory failures among adults with acquired brain injury (ABI; de Joode, van Heugten, Verhey, & van Boxtel, 2010 de Joode, E., van Heugten, C., Verhey, F. and van Boxtel, M. 2010. Efficacy and usability of assistive technology for patients with cognitive deficits: A systematic review. Clinical Rehabilitation, 24: 701–714. doi:10.1177/0269215510367551[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Sohlberg et al., 2007 Sohlberg, M. M., Kennedy, M., Avery, J., Coelho, C., Turkstra, L., Ylvisaker, M. and Yorkston, K. 2007. Evidence-based practice for the use of external aids as a memory compensation technique. Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology, 15(1): 15–51.  [Google Scholar]). This study evaluated a novel ATC device, the Television Assisted Prompting (TAP) system, which provides audiovisual reminders at scheduled prospective times on a person's home television. A randomised, controlled crossover design evaluated task completion for two preferred, two non-preferred, and two structured experimental tasks among 23 adults with ABI between two conditions: TAP prompting or typical (TYP) practice, without TAP reminders. Main outcomes showed a significant advantage of prospective memory prompting (72% completion) over no prompting (43% completion) and higher task completion with TAP prompting for researcher-assigned experimental tasks (81%) compared to self-selected preferred (68%) or non-preferred (68%) tasks. Results are discussed in the context of ATC efficacy to support prospective memory prompting following ABI, with contributions and future directions for continued investigation of customisation of prompts to maximise task completion.     

Deep dysphasia as a phonetic input deficit: Evidence from a single case

Background: The syndrome of deep dysphasia is characterised by an inability to repeat pseudowords and the production of semantic errors in word repetition. Several single case studies revealed that phonological decoding might be outstandingly impaired. Recovery of deep dysphasia has only been illustrated in detail for patient NC (Martin & Saffran, 1992 Martin, N. and Saffran, E. M. 1992. A computational account of deep dysphasia: Evidence from a single case study.. Brain and Language, 43: 240–474. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Dell, Schwartz, Martin, Saffran, and Gagnon (1997 Dell, G. S., Schwartz, E. M., Martin, N., Saffran, E. and Gagnon, D. A. 1997. Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers.. Psychological Review, 104: 801–838. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) tried to simulate NC's repetition performance in their connectionist lexical activation model, but it did not fit his error pattern as it assumes perfect recognition of auditory input.

Aims: In this new single case study on recovery of deep dysphasia, we intended to collect further evidence for the assumption that impaired input processing is the crucial cause of the impairment. Moreover, we aimed to explain impairment and psycholinguistic parameter effects in the connectionist semantic‐phonological model (Foygel & Dell, 2000 Foygel, D. and Dell, G. S. 2000. Models of impaired lexical access in speech production.. Journal of Memory and Language, 43: 182–216. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) by adding a phonetic input level.

Methods & Procedures: JR's performance was repeatedly assessed in the course of recovery. Errors in naming and repetition were classified according to the taxonomy of Dell et al. (1997 Dell, G. S., Schwartz, E. M., Martin, N., Saffran, E. and Gagnon, D. A. 1997. Lexical access in aphasic and nonaphasic speakers.. Psychological Review, 104: 801–838. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). JR's error patterns were simulated in the semantic‐phonological model to determine the naming disorder and to predict word repetition. In addition, we established an error modality analysis to disentangle input and output impairments in repetition. Thus, the source of each error could be subclassified as belonging to either expressive or receptive components of repetition.

Outcomes & Results: Initially there was a sharp contrast between severely impaired word and pseudoword repetition and almost unimpaired reading aloud. During recovery, performance in naming and word repetition improved a great deal, while repetition of pseudowords remained impossible. The evolvement of real word repetition was characterised by psycholinguistic parameter effects at different points in time: concreteness before length, before frequency. The connectionist model over‐predicted correct responses in word repetition as for NC. There were only few expressive repetition errors; regarding receptive errors, nonwords and null responses decreased significantly while formal errors became the dominant error type in the course of recovery.

Conclusions: The development of psycholinguistic parameter effects, dissociations in performance, the computer simulations, and results from error modality analysis as well as changes of error pattern are ample evidence for the primary decoding disorder in JR. We argue that deep dysphasia can be explained by an impairment of phonetic–phonological connections in an extended version of the connectionist one‐route model of repetition with four rather than three levels of auditory word processing. The improved real word repetition despite persisting failure on pseudowords is accounted for by an increase of both phonetic–phonological and lexical–phonological connection weights.