Nonlinguistic Cognitive Factors Predict Treatment-Induced Recovery in Chronic Poststroke Aphasia

Abstract

Objective: To determine if pre-treatment non-linguistic cognition predicted language treatment outcomes and if so, which specific non-linguistic cognitive subskills predicted naming therapy outcomes. Design: Retrospective Setting: Research clinic Participants: Study 1 included data from 67 persons with aphasia who underwent language treatment and a pre-treatment cognitive-linguistic assessment battery. Study 2 included data from 27 Study 1 participants who completed additional pre-treatment non-linguistic cognitive assessments. Interventions: 120-minute sessions of sentence comprehension (n=26) or naming treatment (n= 41) 2×/week for up to 10-12 weeks Main Outcome Measure(s): Proportion of potential maximal gain (i.e. PMG; assessed immediately after treatment [10-12 weeks]; formula = mean post-treatment score-mean pretreatment score/total number of trained items-mean pre-treatment score) and proportion of potential maximal gain maintained (i.e., PMGM; assessed 12 weeks after post-treatment [22-24 weeks]; formula = mean maintenance score-mean pre-treatment score/total number of trained items-mean pre-treatment score) as outcome variables; and pre-treatment assessment scores as predictor variables. Results: In study 1, 37% participants demonstrated non-linguistic cognitive deficits. Principal component analyses reduced assessment data to two components: linguistic and non-linguistic cognition. Backward elimination regression revealed that higher linguistic and non-linguistic

Investigating Language and Domain-General Processing in Neurotypicals and Individuals With Aphasia — A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Pilot Study

“…Dorsolateral aspects of SFG have been implicated in attention and working memory (Li et al, 2013), suggesting that individuals with aphasia may have recruited left SFG during language processing to maintain information in short-term memory (e.g., retrieving the name of the picture while reading the written phrase during semantic feature judgment). This finding is in line with work in the field of aphasia emphasizing the role of non-linguistic cognition in language functions (Wright and Shisler, 2005;Villard and Kiran, 2017;Gilmore et al, 2019). Individuals with aphasia also demonstrated engagement of LSMG during semantic feature and RPCG during picture naming, which were not significantly engaged by the healthy groups for the real picture condition and may represent recruitment of domain-general cognitive regions when processing language in the context of aphasia (i.e., engaged when task complexity increases, irrespective of modality; Fedorenko et al, 2013).…”

Current Approaches to the Treatment of Post-Stroke Aphasia

“…For example, Dignam et al 52 revealed that cognitive factors such as verbal working memory predict SLT-related improvements in naming. Similarly, a study by Gilmore et al 53 suggested that cognitive factors predict the outcome of SLT targeting either sentence comprehension or naming in aphasia. Much like Breitenstein et al, 18 Nouwens et al, 29 and Godecke et al, 30 these preliminary data from POLAR suggest participants with more severe aphasia are less likely to respond to SLT.…”

White Matter Hyperintensities Predict Response to Language Treatment in Poststroke Aphasia

“…5 The prediction of aphasia recovery has largely focused on left hemisphere lesion-related factors, including lesion size and location 6 and pretreatment cognitive skills. 7 However, the integrity of the brain tissue spared by the stroke may contribute to neural plasticity and influence treatment response independently of left hemisphere damage. 8 White matter hyperintensities (WMH) of presumed vascular origin is a relevant radiological marker of brain health.…”