Arousal and auditory vigilance in individuals with aphasia during a linguistic and nonlinguistic task

Background: Attentional deficits have been observed in individuals with aphasia. Attention, specifically vigilance, is believed to be related to arousal. However, our understanding of arousal and its impact on vigilance performance in individuals with aphasia is very limited. Aims: The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether there is nonoptimal arousal in individuals with aphasia that would affect auditory processing of linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli. Additionally, this study explored whether there was generalised, nonoptimal arousal and impaired vigilance or deficits specific to linguistic processing. Methods & Procedures: A total of 20 males (10 with left‐hemisphere stroke and aphasia and 10 nonbrain‐damaged controls) participated in this study. Physiologic arousal indexed by cardiovascular and neuroendocrine measures and vigilance performance was compared between the two groups during linguistic and nonlinguistic vigilance tasks. Outcomes & Results: Results indicated that arousal levels and vigilance performance differed between the two groups. However, within groups arousal and vigilance did not differ between the linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks. Conclusions: The present findings suggest that individuals with aphasia have decreased overall vigilance and nonoptimal arousal regardless of the linguistic or nonlinguistic nature of the stimuli.