Treatment of naming in nonfluent aphasia through manipulation of intention and attention: a phase 1 comparison of two novel treatments.

Twenty-three chronic nonfluent aphasia patients with moderate or severe word-finding impairments and 11 with profound word-finding impairments received two novel picture-naming treatments. The intention treatment initiated picture-naming trials with a complex left-hand movement and was designed to enhance right frontal participation during word retrieval. The attention treatment required patients to view visual stimuli for picture-naming trials in their left hemispace and was designed to enhance right posterior perisylvian participation during word retrieval.

Semantic-phonologic treatment for noun and verb retrieval impairments in aphasia.

Nouns and verbs differ in their neural and psycholinguistic attributes. It is not known whether these differences lead to distinct patterns of response to treatment for individuals with word retrieval impairments associated with aphasia. Eight participants with naming disorders induced by left hemisphere strokes were treated with a semantic-phonologic treatment protocol for nouns and verbs using a single participant multiple baseline design.

Effects of gesture+verbal treatment for noun and verb retrieval in aphasia.

Links between verbs and gesture knowledge suggest that verb retrieval may be particularly amenable to gesture+verbal training (GVT) in aphasia compared to noun retrieval. This study examines effects of GVT for noun and verb retrieval in nine individuals with aphasia subsequent to left hemisphere stroke. Participants presented an array of noun and verb retrieval deficits, including impairments of semantic and/or phonologic processing.

Effects of two treatments for aprosodia secondary to acquired brain injury.

Expressive aprosodia is an impaired ability to change one's voice to express common emotions such as joy, anger, and sadness. Individuals with aprosodia speak in a flat, unemotional voice that often results in miscommunicated emotional messages. This study investigated two conceptually based treatments for expressive aprosodia: imitative treatment and cognitive-linguistic treatment.

Active treatments for aprosodia secondary to right hemisphere stroke.

This study investigates the effects of two mechanism-based treatments for expressive aprosodia. Three participants, two women and one man, had a right hemisphere cerebral infarction resulting in affective aprosodia with greater expressive than receptive deficits. Trained raters determined presence of aprosodia by judging participants' performance on two emotional communication batteries.

Novel treatments for expressive aprosodia: a phase I investigation of cognitive linguistic and imitative interventions.

This study investigated two mechanism-based treatments for expressive aprosodia, a disturbance in emotional prosody thought to be governed by the right hemisphere. The 3 participants all suffered right CVA's resulting in expressive aprosodia. Presence of expressive aprosodia was determined by performance on two batteries of emotional communication.