Dissociation of White Matter Bundles in Different Recovery Measures in Poststroke Aphasia.

Background: Poststroke aphasia (PSA) recovery shows high variability across individuals and at different time points. Although diffusion biomarkers from the ventral and dorsal streams have demonstrated strong predictive power for language outcomes, it is still unclear how these biomarkers relate to the various stages of PSA recovery. In this study, we aim to compare diffusion metrics and language measures as predictors of language recovery in a longitudinal cohort of participants with PSA.

Reliability of the picture description task of the Western Aphasia Battery - revised in Laurentian French persons without brain injury.

Limited normative data (including psychometric properties) are currently available on discourse tasks in non-dominant languages such as Laurentian (Quebec) French. The lack of linguistic and cultural adaptation has been identified as a barrier to discourse assessment. The main aim of this study is to document inter-rater and test-retest reliability properties of the picnic scene of the Western Aphasia Battery - Revised (WAB-R), including the cultural adaptation of an information content unit (ICU) list, and provide a normative reference for persons without brain injury (PWBI).

Speech Acts as a Window to the Difficulties in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living: A Qualitative Descriptive Study in Mild Neurocognitive Disorder and Healthy Aging.

Background: Executive functions (EF) are central to instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). A novel approach to the assessment of the impact of EF difficulties on IADL may be through the speech acts produced when performing IADL-inspired tasks in a laboratory-apartment. Speech acts may act as a window to the difficulties encountered during task performance.

Longitudinal evolution of diffusion metrics after left hemisphere ischaemic stroke.

White matter is often severely affected after human ischaemic stroke. While animal studies have suggested that various factors may contribute to white matter structural damage after ischaemic stroke, the characterization of damaging processes to the affected hemisphere after human stroke remains poorly understood. Thus, the present study aims to thoroughly describe the longitudinal pattern of evolution of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging metrics in different parts of the ipsilesional white matter after stroke.

Adaptation and Reliability of the Cinderella Story Retell Task in Canadian French Persons Without Brain Injury.

Purpose: Main concept (MC) analysis is a well-documented method of discourse analysis in adults with and without brain injury. This study aims to develop a MC checklist that is culturally and linguistically adapted for Canadian French speakers and examine its reliability. We also documented microstructural properties and provide a normative reference in persons not brain injured (PNBIs).

Treatment-induced neuroplasticity after anomia therapy in post-stroke aphasia: A systematic review of neuroimaging studies.

We systematically reviewed the literature on neural changes following anomia treatment post-stroke. We conducted electronic searches of CINAHL, Cochrane Trials, Embase, Ovid MEDLINE, MEDLINE-in-Process and PsycINFO databases; two independent raters assessed all abstracts and full texts. Accepted studies reported original data on adults with post-stroke aphasia, who received behavioural treatment for anomia, and magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI) pre- and post-treatment.

Spared speech fluency is associated with increased functional connectivity in the speech production network in semantic variant primary progressive aphasia.

Semantic variant primary progressive aphasia is a clinical syndrome characterized by marked semantic deficits, anterior temporal lobe atrophy and reduced connectivity within a distributed set of regions belonging to the functional network associated with semantic processing. However, to fully depict the clinical signature of semantic variant primary progressive aphasia, it is necessary to also characterize preserved neural networks and linguistic abilities, such as those subserving speech production. In this case-control observational study, we employed whole-brain seed-based connectivity on task-free MRI data of 32 semantic variant primary progressive aphasia patients and 46 healthy controls to investigate the functional connectivity of the speech production network and its relationship with the underlying grey matter.

The longitudinal trajectory of discourse from the hyperacute to the chronic phase in mild to moderate poststroke aphasia recovery: A case series study.

Background: Discourse analysis has recently received much attention in the aphasia literature. Even if post-stroke language recovery occurs throughout the longitudinal continuum of recovery, very few studies have documented discourse changes from the hyperacute to the chronic phases of recovery.

Aims: To document a multilevel analysis of discourse changes from the hyperacute phase to the chronic phase of post-stroke recovery using a series of single cases study designs.

Validation of Videoconference Administration of Picture Description From the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised in Neurotypical Canadian French Speakers.

Purpose: During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians and researchers have increasingly used remote online assessments to pursue their activities, but mostly with tests not validated for videoconference administration. This study aims to validate the remote online administration of picture description in Canadian French neurotypical speakers and to explore the thematic unit (TU) checklist recently developed.

Method: Spoken discourse elicited through the picture description task of the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) was collected from Canadian French neurotypical speakers from Québec aged between 50 and 79 years old.

Timing stroke: A review on stroke pathophysiology and its influence over time on diffusion measures.

Diffusion imaging (DWI) is considered an optimal technique to detect hyperacute cerebral ischemia and has thus enriched the clinical management of patients with suspected stroke. Researchers have taken this technique beyond with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)-extracted measures, which have been proposed as biomarkers of stroke progression. A large body of literature report on the correlates between pathophysiological events, such as cytotoxic and vasogenic edema, and diffusion changes in the brain.

Differential Patterns of Domain-Specific Cognitive Complaints and Awareness Across the Alzheimer's Disease Spectrum.

: Characterizing self- and informant-reported cognitive complaints, as well as awareness of cognitive decline (ACD), is useful for an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, complaints and ACD related to cognitive functions other than memory are poorly studied. Furthermore, it remains unclear which source of information is the most useful to distinguish various groups on the AD spectrum.

Self-reported word-finding complaints are associated with cerebrospinal fluid amyloid beta and atrophy in cognitively normal older adults.

Introduction: Self-reported word-finding difficulties are among the most frequent complaints in cognitively normal (CN) older adults. However, the clinical significance is still debated.

Methods: We selected 239 CN from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database who had completed the Everyday Cognition (ECog) questionnaire, as well as a lumbar puncture for amyloid beta (Aβ) and magnetic resonance imaging.

A Standardized Set of 380 Pictures for Lebanese Arabic: Norms for Name Agreement, Conceptual Familiarity, Imageability, and Subjective Frequency.

Research on language processing requires language-specific norms of pictorial and linguistic experimental stimuli across different psycholinguistic variables. Such normative data have not yet been collected for Lebanese Arabic (LA), an Arabic dialect. Arabic languages are characterized by diglossia: while modern standard Arabic is their common means of formal communication, Arabic dialects are the medium of oral communication within each community.

A methodological scoping review of the integration of fMRI to guide dMRI tractography. What has been done and what can be improved: A 20-year perspective.

Combining MRI modalities is a growing trend in neurosciences. It provides opportunities to investigate the brain architecture supporting cognitive functions. Integrating fMRI activation to guide dMRI tractography offers potential advantages over standard tractography methods.

Picture Description of the Western Aphasia Battery Picnic Scene: Reference Data for the French Canadian Population.

Purpose: The main aim of this study is to provide French Canadian reference data for quantitative measures extracted from connected speech samples elicited by the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised picnic scene, a discourse task frequently used in clinical assessment of acquired language disorders.

Method: Our sample consisted of 62 healthy French Canadian adults divided in two age groups: a 50- to 69-year-old group and a 70- to 90-year-old group.

Results: High interrater reliability scores were obtained for most of the variables.

Connected speech markers of amyloid burden in primary progressive aphasia.

Introduction: Positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid imaging has become an important part of the diagnostic workup for patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and uncertain underlying pathology. Here, we employ a semi-automated analysis of connected speech (CS) with a twofold objective. First, to determine if quantitative CS features can help select primary progressive aphasia (PPA) patients with a higher probability of a positive PET amyloid imaging result.

Comprehensive Analysis of Brain Volume in REM Sleep Behavior Disorder with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Rapid-eye-movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a major risk factor for Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. More than a third of RBD patients have mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but their specific structural brain alterations remain poorly understood.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the local deformation and volume of gray and white matter tissue underlying MCI in RBD.

What are your thoughts? Exploring age-related changes in episodic and semantic autobiographical content on an open-ended retrieval task.

Older adults display impairments in accessing episodic, but not semantic details, when specifically requested to construct autobiographical events. How aging affects access to autobiographical information under conditions of low retrieval constraint remains unclear. We examined the production of episodic and "non-episodic" details in young ( = 25) and older ( = 24) adults on a novel autobiographical narrative task free from constraints on the type of information to be retrieved (Thoughts task), compared with the standard autobiographical memory and picture description tasks.

Low-Resolution Neurocognitive Aging and Cognition: An Embodied Perspective.

Consistent with embodied cognition, a growing evidence in young adults show that sensorimotor processing is at the core of cognition. Considering that this approach predicts direct interaction between sensorimotor processing and cognition, embodied cognition may thus be particularly relevant to study aging, since this population is characterized by concomitant changes in sensorimotor and cognitive processing. The present perspective aims at showing the value and interest to explore normal aging throughout embodiment by focusing on the neurophysiological and cognitive changes occurring in aging.

Functional Connectivity of Successful Picture-Naming: Age-Specific Organization and the Effect of Engaging in Stimulating Activities.

Aging is a lifelong process that starts at birth. Throughout the course of their life, individuals are exposed to various levels of stimulating activities. A higher level of engagement in such activities is suspected to protect against the normal course of cognitive aging or the cognitive manifestations of age-related brain diseases.

Word-finding in confrontation naming and picture descriptions produced by individuals with early post-stroke aphasia.

The present study aims to assess the relationship between quantitative measures of connected speech production and performance in confrontation naming in early post-stroke aphasia (8-14 days post-stroke). We collected connected speech samples elicited by a picture description task and administered a confrontation naming task to 20 individuals with early post-stroke aphasia and 20 healthy controls. Transcriptions were made in compliance with the CHAT format guidelines.

Unisensory and multisensory temporal processing in autism and dyslexia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This study presents a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of temporal processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental dyslexia (DD), two neurodevelopmental disorders in which temporal processing deficits have been highly researched. The results provide strong evidence for impairments in temporal processing in both ASD (g = 0.48) and DD (g = 0.

Predicting Early Post-stroke Aphasia Outcome From Initial Aphasia Severity.

The greatest degree of language recovery in post-stroke aphasia takes place within the first weeks. Aphasia severity and lesion measures have been shown to be good predictors of long-term outcomes. However, little is known about their implications in early spontaneous recovery.