Effectiveness of French Phonological Components Analysis in individuals with chronic aphasia.

Background: Over 50% of individuals with aphasia face ongoing word-finding issues. Studies have found phonologically oriented therapy helpful for English speakers, but this has not yet been studied in French. It is essential to assess the effectiveness of such a therapy in French, considering the distinct linguistic typologies between both languages, which may impact the outcomes of phonologically oriented interventions.

Efficacy of COMPAs, an App Designed to Support Communication Between Persons Living With Dementia in Long-Term Care Settings and Their Caregivers: Mixed Methods Implementation Study.

Background: Persons living with dementia experience autonomy loss and require caregiver support on a daily basis. Dementia involves a gradual decline in communication skills, leading to fewer interactions and isolation for both people living with dementia and their caregivers, negatively impacting the quality of life for both members of the dyad. The resulting stress and burden on caregivers make them particularly susceptible to burnout.

Social Isolation of Older Adults Living in a Neighbourhood of Montreal: A Qualitative Descriptive Study of the Perspectives of Older Adults and Community Stakeholders.

The purpose of this study was to describe the social isolation of older adults in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood (Montreal, Canada) from the perspectives of older adults and community stakeholders. To do so, a descriptive qualitative study was conducted, involving community-dwelling older adults and a variety of key stakeholders from the neighbourhood. Seven focus groups were held, with a total of 37 participants.

French Phonological Component Analysis and aphasia recovery: A bilingual perspective on behavioral and structural data.

Studies show bilingualism entails an advantage in cognitive control tasks. There is evidence of a bilingual advantage in the context of aphasia, resulting in better cognitive outcomes and recovery in bilingual persons with aphasia compared to monolingual peers. This bilingual advantage also results in structural changes in the right hemisphere gray matter.

Communication during the COVID-19 pandemic: the hearing-impaired perspective.

Objective: To understand the communicational and psychosocial effects of COVID-19 protective measures in real-life everyday communication settings.

Design: An online survey consisting of close-set and open-ended questions aimed to describe the communication difficulties experienced in different communication activities (in-person and telecommunication) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Study Sample: 172 individuals with hearing loss and 130 who reported not having a hearing loss completed the study.

Multifactorial approaches to study bilingualism in the aging population: Past, present, future.

A better understanding and more reliable classification of bilinguals has been progressively achieved through the fine-tuning methodology and simultaneously optimizing the measurement tools. However, the current understanding is far from generalization to a larger population varying in different measures of bilingualism-L2 Age of acquisition (L2 AOA), L2 usage and exposure, and L2 proficiency. More recent studies have highlighted the importance of modeling bilingualism as a continuous variable.

Resting-State Functional Connectivity following Phonological Component Analysis: The Combined Action of Phonology and Visual Orthographic Cues.

Anomia is the most frequent and pervasive symptom for people with aphasia (PWA). Phonological component analysis (PCA) is a therapy incorporating phonological cues to treat anomia. Investigations of neural correlates supporting improvements following PCA remain scarce.

Exploring attention in the bilingualism continuum: A resting-state functional connectivity study.

This study explores the effects of bilingualism on the subcomponents of attention using resting state functional connectivity analysis (rsFC). Unlike previous studies, measures of bilingualism - L2 Age of Acquisition (AOA), L2 exposure, and L2 proficiency - were examined along a continuum to study attentional mechanisms using rsFC instead of dichotomizing them. 20 seed regions were pre-selected for the three subcomponents of attention.

Increased links between language and motor areas: A proof-of-concept study on resting-state functional connectivity following Personalized Observation, Execution and Mental imagery therapy in chronic aphasia.

A tight coupling of language and motor processes has been established, which is consistent with embodied cognition theory. However, very few therapies have been designed to exploit the synergy between motor and language processes to help rehabilitate people with aphasia (PWA). Moreover, the underlying mechanisms supporting the efficacy of such approaches remain unknown.

Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control: The Effect of Bilingualism and Age on the Subcomponents of Attention.

Life-long experience of using two or more languages has been shown to enhance cognitive control abilities in young and elderly bilinguals in comparison to their monolingual peers. This advantage has been found to be larger in older adults in comparison to younger adults, suggesting that bilingualism provides advantages in cognitive control abilities. However, studies showing this effect have used a variety of tasks (Simon Task, Stroop task, Flanker Task), each measuring different subcomponents of attention and raising mixed results.

Lateralized Affective Word Priming and Gender Effect.

Affective priming research suggests that processing of affective words is a quick and short lived process. Using the divided visual field (DVF) paradigm, investigations of the lateralization of affective word processing have yielded inconsistent results. However, research on semantic processing of words generally suggests that the left hemisphere (LH) is the location where rapid processing occurs.

The Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Anomia Recovery following Personalized Observation, Execution, and Mental Imagery Therapy: A Proof of Concept.

The impact of sensorimotor strategies on aphasia recovery has rarely been explored. This paper reports on the efficacy of personalized observation, execution, and mental imagery (POEM) therapy, a new approach designed to integrate sensorimotor and language-based strategies to treat verb anomia, a frequent aphasia sign. Two participants with verb anomia were followed up in a pre-/posttherapy fMRI study.

Second Language Word Learning through Repetition and Imitation: Functional Networks as a Function of Learning Phase and Language Distance.

: Repetition and imitation are among the oldest second language (L2) teaching approaches and are frequently used in the context of L2 learning and language therapy, despite some heavy criticism. Current neuroimaging techniques allow the neural mechanisms underlying repetition and imitation to be examined. This fMRI study examines the influence of verbal repetition and imitation on network configuration.

Maladaptive Plasticity in Aphasia: Brain Activation Maps Underlying Verb Retrieval Errors.

Anomia, or impaired word retrieval, is the most widespread symptom of aphasia, an acquired language impairment secondary to brain damage. In the last decades, functional neuroimaging techniques have enabled studying the neural basis underlying anomia and its recovery. The present study aimed to explore maladaptive plasticity in persistent verb anomia, in three male participants with chronic nonfluent aphasia.

X-linked focal epilepsy with reflex bathing seizures: Characterization of a distinct epileptic syndrome.

Objective: We recently reported a Q555X mutation of synapsin 1 (SYN1) on chromosome Xp11-q21 in a family segregating partial epilepsy and autistic spectrum disorder. Herein, we provide a detailed description of the epileptic syndrome in the original family.

Methods: A total of 34 members from a large French-Canadian family were evaluated.

Interference Control In Elderly Bilinguals: Appearances Can Be Misleading.

Bilingualism has been associated with successful aging. In particular, research on the cognitive advantages of bilingualism suggests that it can enhance control over interference and help delay the onset of dementia signs. However, the evidence on the so-called cognitive advantage is not unanimous; furthermore, little is known about the neural basis of this supposed cognitive advantage in bilingual as opposed to monolingual elderly populations.

Age-related behavioural and neurofunctional patterns of second language word learning: different ways of being successful.

This study aimed at investigating the neural basis of word learning as a function of age and word type. Ten young and ten elderly French-speaking participants were trained by means of a computerized Spanish word program. Both age groups reached a similar naming accuracy, but the elderly required significantly more time.

Aphasia therapy in the age of globalization: cross-linguistic therapy effects in bilingual aphasia.

Introduction: Globalization imposes challenges to the field of behavioural neurology, among which is an increase in the prevalence of bilingual aphasia. Thus, aphasiologists have increasingly focused on bilingual aphasia therapy and, more recently, on the identification of the most efficient procedures for triggering language recovery in bilinguals with aphasia. Therapy in both languages is often not available, and, thus, researchers have focused on the transfer of therapy effects from the treated language to the untreated one.

The complementary role of the cerebral hemispheres in recovery from aphasia after stroke: a critical review of literature.

Objectives: To review the literature on the specific role of the right cerebral hemisphere during recovery from aphasia in order to address the lack of consensus among authors. To derive a theoretical model reconciling the controversial findings in the literature.

Methods: Initial PubMed, MEDLINE (1946 to 5 May 2012) and PsycINFO (1806 to first week June 2012) searches on recovery mechanisms from aphasia, whether treatment-related or not, retrieved a total of 35 English language articles.

Functional connectivity changes in second language vocabulary learning.

Functional connectivity changes in the language network (Price, 2010), and in a control network involved in second language (L2) processing (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) were examined in a group of Persian (L1) speakers learning French (L2) words. Measures of network integration that characterize the global integrative state of a network (Marrelec, Bellec et al., 2008) were gathered, in the shallow and consolidation phases of L2 vocabulary learning.

Default-mode network functional connectivity in aphasia: therapy-induced neuroplasticity.

Previous research on participants with aphasia has mainly been based on standard functional neuroimaging analysis. Recent studies have shown that functional connectivity analysis can detect compensatory activity, not revealed by standard analysis. Little is known, however, about the default-mode network in aphasia.

Lexical-semantic processing in the semantic priming paradigm in aphasic patients.

There is evidence that the explicit lexical-semantic processing deficits which characterize aphasia may be observed in the absence of implicit semantic impairment. The aim of this article was to critically review the international literature on lexical-semantic processing in aphasia, as tested through the semantic priming paradigm. Specifically, this review focused on aphasia and lexical-semantic processing, the methodological strengths and weaknesses of the semantic paradigms used, and recent evidence from neuroimaging studies on lexical-semantic processing.

Therapy-induced neuroplasticity in chronic aphasia.

Research on the neural substrate of aphasia recovery has consistently increased since the advent of functional neuroimaging. The evidence from therapy-induced aphasia recovery studies shows that better recovery results from the reactivation of left hemisphere function; still, the specific left hemisphere key areas that sign successful outcome with a specific therapy approach remain to be identified. Nine participants suffering from aphasia received brief and intensive therapy with Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA).