Attention in individuals with aphasia: Performance on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test - 2nd edition.

The sample was drawn from people selected for four aphasia intervention studies, with criteria such as right-handedness, native English, education level and stroke type, so it may not represent all people with aphasia. Attention was measured at only one time point, and a second baseline CPT-II was not completed, so learning or fatigue effects could have influenced performance. The study did not include lesion size or location data, which prior research has identified as relevant to aphasia severity and recovery. The CPT-II primarily measures sustained attention, vigilance, response inhibition and executive control, so it does not cover every aspect of attention. Fluent aphasia was treated as one group, including anomic, Wernicke and conduction aphasia, which could hide differences between language profiles. The study found associations between attention and language scores, but it did not test whether attention problems cause language problems or whether attention treatment changes communication.

Do not conclude that attention training will improve aphasia. This study assessed attention and language at one time point and found associations, but it did not test treatment effects or causality.