Response Time Inconsistencies in Object and Action Naming in Anomic Aphasia.

Purpose: The effect of repeated naming on both object and action picture naming in individuals with anomic aphasia is explored. We asked whether repeatedly naming the same items leads to improved accuracy and reduced response latency.

Method: Ten individuals with anomic aphasia and 6 healthy adults, 3 young and 3 old, named a set of 27 object pictures and a set of 27 action pictures presented 1 at a time on a computer screen.

Use of tDCS in Aphasia Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review of the Behavioral Interventions Implemented With Noninvasive Brain Stimulation for Language Recovery.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to review the behavioral treatments used in aphasia rehabilitation research that have been combined with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Although tDCS in aphasia treatment has shown promise, the results have not been conclusive, and their interpretation is further compounded by the heterogeneity of study characteristics. Because implementing a behavioral task during brain stimulation has been shown to be pivotal to the adjuvant effects of tDCS, we analyze the behavioral treatments that have been paired with tDCS.

Translational treatment of aphasia combining neuromodulation and behavioral intervention for lexical retrieval: implications from a single case study.

Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive method of brain stimulation, is an adjunctive research-therapy for aphasia. The concept supporting translational application of tDCS is that brain plasticity, facilitated by language intervention, can be enhanced by non-invasive brain stimulation. This study combined tDCS with an ecologically focused behavioral approach that involved training nouns and verbs in sentences.

Use of Computational Modeling to Inform tDCS Electrode Montages for the Promotion of Language Recovery in Post-stroke Aphasia.

Background: Although pilot trials of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in aphasia are encouraging, protocol optimization is needed. Notably, it has not yet been clarified which of the varied electrode montages investigated is the most effective in enhancing language recovery.

Objective: To consider and contrast the predicted brain current flow patterns (electric field distribution) produced by varied 1×1 tDCS (1 anode, 1 cathode, 5 × 7 cm pad electrodes) montages used in aphasia clinical trials.

Impairment and Functional Interventions for Aphasia: Having it All.

Aphasia, a cognitive-linguistic disorder secondary to stroke, is a frequent and often chronic consequence of stroke with detrimental effects on autonomy and health-related quality of life. Treatment of aphasia can be approached in a number of ways. Impairment-based approaches that focus on training a specific linguistic form can be implemented.

Stroke survivors over-estimate their medication self-administration (MSA) ability, predicting memory loss.

Background And Objective: Medication self-administration (MSA) may be cognitively challenging after stroke, but guidelines are currently lacking for identifying high-functioning stroke survivors who may have difficulty with this task. Complicating this matter, stroke survivors may not be aware of their cognitive problems (cognitive anosognosia) and may over-estimate their MSA competence. The authors wished to evaluate medication self-administration and MSA self-awareness in 24 consecutive acute stroke survivors undergoing inpatient rehabilitation, to determine if they would over-estimate their medication self-administration and if this predicted memory disorder.

Assessment of neglect dyslexia with functional reading materials.

Background: Spatial neglect is a neurocognitive disorder that affects perception, representation, and/or motor planning. Neglect dyslexia in spatial neglect after right hemisphere damage may co-occur with, or be dissociated from, other spatial neglect signs. Previous neglect dyslexia research focused on word-level stimuli and reading errors.

Visual distraction: an altered aiming spatial response in dementia.

Background/aims: Healthy individuals demonstrate leftward bias on visuospatial tasks such as line bisection, which has been attributed to right brain dominance. We investigated whether this asymmetry occurred in patients with probable dementia of the Alzheimer type (pAD) which is associated with neurodegenerative changes affecting temporoparietal regions.

Methods: Subjects with pAD and matched controls performed a line bisection task in near and far space under conditions of no distraction, left-sided visual distraction and right-sided visual distraction.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): potential progress for language improvement in aphasia.

Aphasia researchers and clinicians share some basic beliefs about language recovery post stroke. Most agree there is a spontaneous recovery period and language recovery may be enhanced by participation in a behavioral therapy program. The application of biological interventions in the form of pharmaceutical treatments or brain stimulation is less well understood in the community of people who work with individuals having aphasia.