针刺治疗脑梗塞失语症疗效观察

目的:观察西医治疗脑梗塞失语症加用针刺的疗效。方法:采用完全随机抽样法分为针刺组49例,对照组45例。针刺组在西医治疗的同时,应用头针、舌三针和体针进行综合治疗;对照组单纯接受西医药物治疗。结果:针刺组有效率为91.84％,对照组有效率为62.22％。两组疗效差异具有非常显著性意义(P<0.01)。结论:西医加针刺效果明显优于单纯西医治疗。     

CLINICAL OBSERVATION ON TREATMENT OF CEREBRAL APOPLEXY-INDUCED APHASIA BY ACUPUNCTURE

Aphasiareferstothedisorderofvocalor-gandueto,degenerationoftheneuronsinthespeechcentercausedbythelesionofthespeechrepresentingareainthedorninanthemisphere.Itisnotassociatedwithdysacousisorparalysisoftheverbalmusclesinclinic.Basedontheirchar-acter,aphasiamaybeclassifiedintotwotypes:motorandsensoryaphasia.Inthepastfewyearswetreatedsuchdiseasebyemployingacupunc-ture,andtheresultwasanalysedincomparisionwiththatofthecontrolgroup.Thefollowingisoursummary.CLINICALDATAFortyeightpatientswereselec…     

TREATMENT OF CEREBRAL PALSY WITH APHASIA BY LINGUISTIC TRAINING COMBINED WITH ACUPUNCTURE

Aphasiaisaconcurrentdisorderofcerebralpalsy(CP)childrenanditsincidencerateisbout70%-75%[1].Itoftenbringsthepatientwithseveredisor dersindaily lifeself careanddirectlyhindsthechild patient’scognitivedevelopment,learningandsocial intercourse.Thus,therehabilitationtreatmentofCP children’saphasiaisveryimportant.FromMay2000toDecember2001,theauthorsofthepresentpaper observedthetherapeuticeffectof“consciousness restoringneedling”pluslinguistictraininginCPchil dren.Followingisthereport.1CLIN…     

Effects of Intensity Variations on Auditory Processing in Aphasia I. Equal Intensities at Each Ear

Clinical observations have led several authors to suggest that talking louder improves auditory comprehension for the aphasic patient, while others suggest that it does nothing to help comprehension. To clarify these observations under experimental conditions, four measures of auditory processing (cortical-evoked responses, nonverbal intensity sequencing, phoneme in word discrimination and sequencing, and a semantic-syntactic measure of comprehension) were used in diotic presentation of stimuli to 10 aphasic subjects with left temporal lobe damage. The stimuli were presented at 70, 85, and 100 dB SPL. Results suggest that a simple diotic (true binaural) increase of stimulus intensity is not a potent variable for influencing auditory processing in patients with aphasia. Although a few subjects improved their performances on selected levels when stimulus intensity was increased, the performances of others decreased. Auditory-evoked response (AER) latencies and amplitudes generally were not significantly different between the damaged and intact hemispheres. The time-intensity trading function was demonstrated with the AER, particularly for the N₂ component. The ear with the greatest advantage on dichotic listening was contralateral to the lesion and was contralateral to the hemisphere that had the shorter P₁ latencies, longer N₂ latencies, and smaller AER amplitudes.     

The bedside assessment practices of speech-language pathologists in adult dysphagia

Abstract

This study used a qualitative approach to describe the experience of the first 3 months post-stroke in order to identify factors which facilitate successfully living with aphasia. Fifteen participants completed semi-structured interviews and self-perceived ratings of how successfully he or she was living with aphasia. A number of themes were identified from the interviews, including: a need to do things in order to be actively engaged in rehabilitation; increase independence and have a purpose in life; the importance of social support; the value of rehabilitation; a need to adapt and make adjustments; and having a positive outlook. These results suggest that a range of service delivery models need to be considered during the early stages post-stroke in order to address individual needs and so that long-term outcomes of people with aphasia may be improved.     

An electrophysiological investigation of discourse coherence in healthy adults

This study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate discourse-coherence processing. Because there are scant data on ERP indices of discourse coherence in typical adults, it is important to study a non-clinical population before examining clinical populations. Twelve adults listened to a story with sentences in a coherent versus incoherent order. Sequences of nonsense syllables served as a control. ERPs in the 200–400?ms time window, reflecting phonological and lexical processing, and in the 600–900?ms time window, reflecting later discourse processing for integration, were investigated. Results revealed a right anterior and posterior positivity that was greater for coherent than for incoherent discourse during the 600–900?ms time window. These findings point to an index of discourse coherence and further suggest that ERPs can be used as a clinical tool to study discourse-processing disorders in populations with brain damage, such as aphasia and traumatic brain injury.     

Validity of an eyetracking method for capturing auditory–visual cross-format semantic priming

Introduction: Semantic priming paradigms are important for understanding lexical–semantic processing and the nature of linguistic deficits accompanying language performance in neurologically impaired individuals such as people with aphasia. Reaction-time-(RT)-based traditional semantic priming tasks entail potential confounds, especially problematic when applied to people with aphasia, who may have concomitant neurocognitive challenges that limit task performance. Some of these confounds include requirements of following complex instructions, making metalinguistic judgments, and using speech or limb-based motor actions to indicate overt responses. Eyetracking methods have great potential for avoiding some of these confounds. We tested the validity of an eyetracking method in capturing semantic priming in an auditory–visual cross-format priming paradigm (auditory word prime–visual image target).

Method: A total of 72 neurologically unimpaired adults participated in two phases: a stimulus development phase using traditional priming (n = 32) and an experimental eyetracking phase (n = 40). Each phase included two conditions, representing distinct levels of prime–target semantic relatedness: unrelated and related. Mean RT data from the traditional priming (stimuli development) phase guided image selection for the eyetracking experiment. Eyetracking indices of fixation duration and latency of fixation were recorded to capture semantic priming in the eyetracking experiment.

Results: Eye fixation data indicated that images related to auditory primes were attended to earlier and attracted significantly greater visual attention than unrelated images. These results mirrored RT data from the traditional priming method, which showed faster RT latencies and more accurate naming performance for related images than for unrelated images.

Conclusions: Results support the validity of eyetracking indices of semantic priming and offer a robust testing protocol for future studies in this line of research. Current clinical relevance for people with aphasia is highlighted. Further empirical testing of the psychometric properties of the eyetracking measures in various semantic priming contexts is recommended.     

Can neuroimaging help aphasia researchers? Addressing generalizability,variability, and interpretability

Neuroimaging studies of individuals with brain damage seek to link brain structure and activity to cognitive impairments, spontaneous recovery, or treatment outcomes. To date, such studies have relied on the critical assumption that a given anatomical landmark corresponds to the same functional unit(s) across individuals. However, this assumption is fallacious even across neurologically healthy individuals. Here, we discuss the severe implications of this issue, and argue for an approach that circumvents it, whereby: (i) functional brain regions are defined separately for each subject using fMRI, allowing for inter-individual variability in their precise location; (ii) the response profile of these subject-specific regions are characterized using various other tasks; and (iii) the results are averaged across individuals, guaranteeing generalizabliity. This method harnesses the complementary strengths of single-case studies and group studies, and it eliminates the need for post hoc “reverse inference” from anatomical landmarks back to cognitive operations, thus improving data interpretability.