Rapid recovery from aphasia after infarction of Wernicke's area.
Stephanie A Yagata, Melodie Yen, Angelica McCarron and 3 others
PMID 29051682WHAT IT FOUND
Two people with aphasia after Wernicke's area strokes gained language ability quickly at first, then more slowly over 3 months.
Speech rate and complexity rose, errors fell. By 3 months they still had conduction aphasia deficits.
Key findings
01Two patients with aphasia from Wernicke's area lesions showed gains in speech rate, word-finding, and sentence complexity.
02By 3 months, both patients' speech rates were within the healthy control range, but their word-finding problems remained outside the control range.
03The overall language pattern changed over time in a way that means gains were fastest early and slower later, and both patients still had conduction aphasia by the end of the study.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study followed only two people, so it cannot show what happens for most patients with Wernicke's area stroke. There was no untreated patient comparison group, so natural recovery cannot be separated from the effect of time. Both patients received speech-language therapy during inpatient rehabilitation. The therapy focused on word retrieval, so the gains cannot be assigned to spontaneous recovery alone. The speech samples were short, and transcription and coding took about one hour per minute, which may add measurement error and is impractical for routine clinical use. The healthy comparison group had only six speakers, so the control ranges are narrow. VG had a previous stroke and dysarthria, and JI had complete destruction of part of the arcuate fasciculus, so their patterns may not apply to other lesions. The study followed only the first 3 months, so it does not show longer-term recovery.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the title as showing that Wernicke's area stroke always causes rapid recovery or that therapy caused it. Only two people were followed, both received speech-language therapy during inpatient rehabilitation, and VG also received occupational therapy after returning home. Both still had conduction aphasia at 3 months.