Structural Priming in Aphasia: A State-of-the-Art Review and Future Directions.
Jiyeon Lee
PMID 40857540WHAT IT FOUND
Reviewed studies show people with aphasia can unconsciously repeat sentence structures after hearing or producing them, and these effects can persist and accumulate.
This suggests a possible treatment route, but it is not proven.
Key findings
01People with aphasia show implicit structural priming in sentence production, and the effect can occur without conscious effort.
02Priming effects in aphasia can last across intervening utterances and build up over repeated trials.
03Comprehension priming in aphasia has been tested in only two published studies, and lexical boost effects are mixed.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The paper is a narrative review, not a new clinical trial, so it cannot by itself show that structural priming causes functional communication improvement. Most reviewed evidence comes from laboratory sentence tasks, and the studies differ in participants, structures, tasks and reported effect sizes. Comprehension priming is supported by only two published studies, so clinical guidance is limited. Lexical boost effects are mixed in aphasia, so repeating verbs or phrases may not reliably strengthen priming. Treatment evidence includes single-participant and pilot studies rather than randomized controlled trials, and broader communication effects remain unknown. There is substantial individual variability, and the review does not identify clear patient factors that predict who benefits.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that structural priming is a proven therapy for aphasia. The paper summarizes experimental and early treatment studies, not randomized clinical trials, and it says the extent of generalization to broader communication is not known.