TOPIC

Aphasia research

Everything we have read on aphasia. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

320 PAPERS · PAGE 2 OF 7 · NEWEST FIRST

• SLPCase Report2019Phonemic fluency improved after inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation in a case of chronic aphasia.International journal of rehabilitation research. Internationale Zeitschrift fur Rehabilitationsforschung. Revue internationale de recherches de readaptationA woman with chronic aphasia improved phonemic fluency by 10 words two months after inhibitory rTMS over right Broca's homologue. Naming, semantic fluency, and Stroop did not improve. This single case cannot show the treatment works.
• SLPCohort2019Discourse recovery after severe traumatic brain injury: exploring the first year.Brain injuryNarrative discourse improved across the first year after severe traumatic brain injury, but scores stayed below matched healthy controls at 12 months. About one third improved faster, and many reached normal range. Education and post-traumatic amnesia duration were linked to recovery.
• SLPSystematic Review2018Relationship between perceived social support and patient-reported communication outcomes across communication disorders: a systematic review.International journal of language & communication disordersAcross adult communication disorders, links between perceived social support and self-reported communication were mostly weak. Qualitative accounts described supportive relationships that helped communication, and absent or misguided support that hindered it.
• SLPOther2019Nonlinguistic Cognitive Factors Predict Treatment-Induced Recovery in Chronic Poststroke Aphasia.Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitationIn chronic poststroke aphasia, pre-treatment nonlinguistic cognitive scores predicted language therapy gains. Higher executive function and visual short-term memory were linked to greater naming gains, including gains seen after treatment ended.
• SLPCase Report2019The impact of morphophonological patterns on verb production: evidence from acquired morphological impairment.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsIn one person with aphasia, past-tense verb errors varied with how common the verb's sound-change pattern was. Regular verbs were easier when their pattern matched common English patterns. Irregular verb accuracy did not show this pattern, but more typical regular errors were more likely.
• SLPPilot2018Assessing speech correction abilities with acoustic analyses: Evidence of preserved online correction in persons with aphasia.International journal of speech-language pathologyEvery participant in this small study showed within-syllable speech correction. Their vowel sounds moved closer to their own average target by mid-word. In this small sample, online correction appeared to remain working even when speech errors were frequent.
• SLPOther2019Measuring word retrieval in narrative discourse: core lexicon in aphasia.International journal of language & communication disordersVerb words from age-matched picture-book lists tracked aphasia severity, while noun, adjective and adverb lists did not. With only 11 people with aphasia, this is an early measure check, not proof verb counts diagnose severity.
• SLPCase Series2019Deciphering the mechanisms of phonological therapy in jargon aphasia.International journal of language & communication disordersFor a man with severe jargon aphasia, phonological therapy improved naming on two trained word lists, but gains did not last and did not spread to untrained words.
• SLPCohort2019Word-level prosodic measures and the differential diagnosis of apraxia of speech.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsWord syllable duration best separated apraxia of speech from aphasia and normal speech. Stress-based measures failed because intrinsic vowel length distorted results. Use simple timing metrics for diagnosis, not complex stress ratios.
• SLPCohort2019Use of co-verbal gestures during word-finding difficulty among Cantonese speakers with fluent aphasia and unimpaired controls.AphasiologyCo-verbal gestures did not improve word retrieval success in fluent aphasia or controls. Object naming ability and overall language severity predicted word finding success. Gestures served communicative functions rather than assisting lexical retrieval.
• SLPOther2019Variation in language mixing in multilingual aphasia.Clinical linguistics & phoneticsMultilingual people with aphasia mixed languages more when aphasia was more severe and when speaking their weaker post-stroke language. Task type did not change mixing, and no one used a language the examiner did not know.
• SLPQualitative2019Caregivers navigating rehabilitative care for people with aphasia after stroke: a multi-lens perspective.International journal of language & communication disordersCaregivers of people with aphasia acted as advocates, therapists, motivators and guardians. They pushed for timely therapy, used self-taught home speech practice, encouraged recovery, and managed insurance and work pressures.
• SLPOther2019Verb and sentence processing patterns in healthy Italian participants: Insight from the Northwestern Assessment of Verbs and Sentences (NAVS).Journal of communication disordersYoung healthy Italian speakers took longer to name and understand verbs with more arguments, and longer to produce or understand object relatives and object clefts. The adapted NAVS task showed these speed differences, but it did not test people with aphasia.
• SLPPilot2019Therapist-Guided Tablet-Based Telerehabilitation for Patients With Aphasia: Proof-of-Concept and Usability Study.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologiesPatients and therapists rated the Bern Aphasia App usable. Patients found training enjoyable and not stressful. The study did not test whether the app improves aphasia language outcomes.
• SLPRCT2019Effects of Phonomotor Treatment on discourse production.AphasiologyIn 26 people with chronic aphasia, 60 hours of Phonomotor Treatment was followed by more efficient communication right after treatment, while speech became more informative at three months, not immediately.
• SLPCohort2019Life Activity Choices by People with Aphasia: Repeated Interviews and Proxy Agreement.AphasiologyPeople with aphasia prefer social activities over other life tasks. Family members guess their preferences with only about 70% accuracy. However, patients are far more consistent with themselves when interviewed twice, proving they are the best source for setting their own therapy goals.
• SLPCase-Control2019Anomia for musical entities.AphasiologyPeople with damage to the left temporal pole struggled to name familiar melodies and instruments, even when they recognised melodies. The problem was not limited to music; it resembled a general naming deficit.
• SLPOther2019Communicative Strengths in Severe Aphasia: The Famous People Protocol and Its Value in Planning Treatment.American journal of speech-language pathologyThe Famous People Protocol helps therapists spot communication strategies people with severe aphasia can actually use, like gesturing or singing, instead of just failing to name. It is not a standardized test, but a clinical tool to plan treatment based on preserved strengths.
• SLPOther2019Predicting confrontation naming item difficulty.AphasiologyNaming speed from 44 healthy adults helped predict how hard each Philadelphia Naming Test picture is, alongside word frequency, age of acquisition and word length.
• SLPCase Series2019Impaired Lexical Selection and Fluency in Post-Stroke Aphasia.AphasiologyIn people with post-stroke aphasia, less fluent speech was linked to greater difficulty recognising words that sound similar to many other words. This suggests that trouble selecting the right word during listening may share mechanisms with trouble speaking fluently.
• SLPCase Report2019Language mixing patterns in a bilingual individual with non-fluent aphasia.AphasiologyIn one bilingual man with non-fluent aphasia, language mixing was more frequent when speaking English than Hebrew, in single-word naming than connected speech, and for function words such as pronouns. Verb versus noun did not differ.
• SLPCase Series2019Electroencephalography in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Apraxia of Speech.AphasiologyEEG was normal in patients with primary progressive apraxia of speech without aphasia, but showed theta slowing in those with aphasia. In nonfluent/agrammatic progressive aphasia, slowing was also seen except in one patient with excess beta activity.
• SLPOther2019Effects of Acquired Aphasia on the Recognition of Speech Under Energetic and Informational Masking Conditions.Trends in hearingPeople with aphasia did worse than age-matched controls at picking out target words from two competing talkers. Their quiet comprehension and hearing profiles were similar, so the difficulty was tied to competing speech.
• SLPOther2019Priming sentence comprehension in aphasia: Effects of lexically independent and specific structural priming.AphasiologyAfter reading a sentence with a particular structure, people with aphasia and healthy older adults were more likely to choose that structure for a later ambiguous sentence. Repeating the verb did not add extra help.
• SLPOther2020Attention in individuals with aphasia: Performance on the Conners' Continuous Performance Test - 2nd edition.Neuropsychological rehabilitationAbout half of 114 adults with chronic aphasia missed target letters on a computer attention test, and 65.8% showed a profile consistent with neurological impairment. Attention was worse with more severe aphasia and did not differ by fluent versus non-fluent type.
• SLPOther2020Typicality-based semantic treatment for anomia results in multiple levels of generalisation.Neuropsychological rehabilitationSemantic feature work on unusual category examples helped people with aphasia name trained items. Untrained typical items improved more than untrained atypical items. Improvement was uneven, and transfer to broader language tasks was limited.
• SLPOther2019Long-Term maintenance of anomia treatment effects in primary progressive aphasia.Neuropsychological rehabilitationNaming treatments improved initially misnamed words at one month, and slowed decline of already named words; some orthographic gains persisted to 15 months in primary progressive aphasia.
• PTOTSLPCohort2019Risk Markers for Not Returning to Work Among Patients with Acquired Brain Injury: A Population-Based Register Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitationOne year after brain injury, women, people born outside Sweden, lower education, aphasia, long hospital stays, mobility or self-care problems, pain, anxiety/depression, and lower satisfaction with rehabilitation process or planning were at higher risk of not returning to work.
• SLPCohort2019Leukoaraiosis Is Associated With a Decline in Language Abilities in Chronic Aphasia.Neurorehabilitation and neural repairMore severe white matter changes on MRI were associated with worsening language scores over time in chronic post-stroke aphasia. Higher Fazekas scores predicted decline on the Western Aphasia Battery.
• SLPOther2019Self-Reported Quality of Life Outcomes in Aphasia Using Life Participation Approach Values: 1-Year Outcomes.Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translationAfter 11 weeks at an aphasia center, 41 clients reported better quality of life, and 40 caregivers reported less strain. Changes persisted across repeated sessions, but everyone received the same services, so proof it caused change is limited.
• SLPOther2020Western Aphasia Battery-Revised Profiles in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech.American journal of speech-language pathologyThe WAB-R separated PPAOS from most PPA groups, but 27 people with PPA scored normal. When the test indicated aphasia, anomic was the most common profile. Use a broader battery.
• SLPOther2020Moving Toward Non-transcription based Discourse Analysis in Stable and Progressive Aphasia.Seminars in speech and languageSome discourse measures may be scored without full transcription and distinguished stable aphasia and PPA from controls. In 15 preliminary participants who received naming therapy and active or sham brain stimulation, accurate main concepts increased.
• SLPOther2020Using AphasiaBank for Discourse Assessment.Seminars in speech and languageAphasiaBank provides automated tools for analyzing discourse in people with aphasia. Main concept checklists and core lexicons allow objective scoring of essential content and typical word usage. CLAN commands automate complex metrics like communicative efficiency and grammatical analysis, reducing transcription time.
• SLPNarrative Review2020Can Script Training Improve Narrative and Conversation in Aphasia across Etiology?Seminars in speech and languageScript training improves spoken language in aphasia by turning rehearsed narratives into automatic speech. It works for stroke-induced and progressive aphasia, using video or audio models to guide practice in therapy or at home.
• SLPCase Series2020Efficacy of Group Conversation Intervention in Individuals with Severe Profiles of Aphasia.Seminars in speech and languageFive people with severe aphasia improved on different measures after conversation treatment. Some standardized language gains did not last six weeks, and no single test captured everyone's change. Self-report and conversation measures varied.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2020Balance and preference in activity participation for informal caregivers of people with aphasia: A questionnaire study.AphasiologyCaregivers of people with aphasia do fewer social and leisure activities than non-caregivers, but want to do more of the same things everyone else wants: socializing, traveling, and resting. Community integration scores showed no significant difference between the groups.
• SLPOther2020Verbal fluency as a measure of lexical access and cognitive control in bilingual persons with aphasia.AphasiologyBilingual people with aphasia performed as well as healthy controls when allowed to switch languages freely. However, they struggled significantly more than controls when forced to switch languages for every word. This suggests that rigid language constraints increase cognitive load and hinder word retrieval.
• SLPOther2020Grammatical Ability Predicts Relative Action Naming Impairment in Primary Progressive Aphasia.AphasiologyIn people with primary progressive aphasia, poorer grammar was linked to more trouble naming actions than objects. The link was strongest when word meaning knowledge was also lower. This does not show that verb-focused therapy works.
• SLPProtocol2020RELEASE: a protocol for a systematic review based, individual participant data, meta- and network meta-analysis, of complex speech-language therapy interventions for stroke-related aphasia.AphasiologyThis paper outlines the plan for a future study pooling data on speech therapy for aphasia. It contains no results, findings, or evidence to guide current clinical decisions.
• SLPSystematic Review2020Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for improving aphasia after stroke: a systematic review with network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitationtDCS showed no evidence of improving functional communication after stroke. Anodal tDCS was associated with better naming nouns, especially over the left inferior frontal gyrus. Naming verbs and safety showed no differences.
• SLPCohort2020Leukoaraiosis Severity Predicts Rate of Decline in Primary Progressive Aphasia.AphasiologyMore severe baseline white matter changes were associated with faster one-year naming decline in 29 people with primary progressive aphasia. This may help SLPs discuss prognosis, but it does not show treatment will slow decline.
• SLPNarrative Review2020Ethical and Practical Challenges of the Communication and Behavioral Manifestations of Primary Progressive Aphasia.Seminars in speech and languageNo finding is reported. Four illustrative cases discuss autonomy, safety, and communication supports in primary progressive aphasia. There are no methods or outcomes.
• SLPOther2020Effects of executive attention on sentence processing in aphasia.AphasiologyGreek-speaking men with agrammatic aphasia struggled to revise misleading sentences and showed a specific attention shifting problem: moving from global to local detail was harder than moving from local to global. Attention shifting performance was linked to sentence judgment performance.
• SLPOther2020Perceptual span in individuals with aphasia.AphasiologyPeople with aphasia had a smaller visual span while reading. Their reading speed matched full text only when they could see the fixated word plus one word to the right; controls needed at least two words to the right.
• SLPOther2020Main concepts for two picture description tasks: An addition to.AphasiologyChecklists now exist for two AphasiaBank picture tasks used to assess aphasia discourse, each with 10 main concepts at a 33% threshold. Healthy controls could score up to 30, and no age-group differences were found.
• SLPOther2020Effect of lexical accessibility on syntactic production in aphasia: An eyetracking study.AphasiologyHearing the person receiving the action first helped people with aphasia produce passives in a lab task, but the effect was smaller than in healthy adults and did not appear in their earliest eye fixations.
• PTOTSLPCase Report2020Verbal Semantics and the Left Dorsolateral Anterior Temporal Lobe: A Longitudinal Case of Bilateral Temporal Degeneration.AphasiologyA woman with right-sided brain degeneration initially lost the meaning of faces and places but kept her word knowledge. This suggests checking non-verbal semantics and social behavior early, even when standard language tests look normal.
• SLPCohort2020Visuomotor Figure Construction and Visual Figure Delayed Recall and Recognition in Primary Progressive Aphasia.AphasiologyIn primary progressive aphasia, delayed figure recall differed by variant: nonfluent/agrammatic participants remembered drawings better than logopenic or semantic participants. Recognition and decline over time did not differ.
• SLPCase Series2021Treatment of verbal short-term memory abilities to improve language function in aphasia: A case series treatment study.Neuropsychological rehabilitationDelayed repetition produced modest gains for three participants on the treated task, and only one maintained the gain at one month. Concrete span improved for eight participants, but responses were mixed, so do not expect it to help all aphasia profiles.
• OTSLPPilot2021Treating limb apraxia via action semantics: a preliminary study.Neuropsychological rehabilitationThree people with post-stroke limb apraxia showed different responses. Two improved hand posture on trained tools after tool-use practice, and one also improved after semantic action training. Untreated tools did not improve.