Persuasive Discourse Impairments in Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Background:Considering the cognitive and linguistic complexity of discourse production, it is expected that individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) should face difficulties in this task. Therefore, clinical examination of discourse has become a useful tool for studying and assessment of communication skills of people suffering from TBI. Among different genres of discourse, persuasive discourse is considered as a more cognitively demanding task. However, little is known about persuasive discourse in individuals suffering from TBI.Objectives:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of adults with TBI on a task of spoken persuasive discourse to determine the impaired linguistic measures.Patients and Methods:Thirteen TBI nonaphasic Persian speaking individuals, ranged between 19 to 40 years (Mean = 25.64 years; SD = 6.10) and 59 healthy adults matched by age, were asked to perform the persuasive discourse task. The task included asking the participants to express their opinion on a topic, and after the analysis of the produced discourse, the two groups were compared on the basis of their language productivity, sentential complexity, maze ratio and cohesion ratio.Results:The TBI group produced discourses with less productivity, sentential complexity, cohesion ratio and more maze ratio compared the control group.Conclusions:As it is important to consider acquired communication disorders particularly discourse impairment of brain injured patients along with their other clinical impairments and regarding the fact that persuasive discourse is crucial in academic and social situations, the persuasive discourse task presented in this study could be a useful tool for speech therapists, intending to evaluate communication disorders in patients with TBI.

Cognitive task demands and discourse performance after traumatic brain injury

“…Dysfluencies are communication behaviours that disrupt the flow of discourse and in the absence of aphasia or stuttering, their frequency is associated with EF in communication (Fagan 1982, Turkstra et al 2004. As described previously, EFs are vulnerable to TBI and individuals with TBI have been found to produce more dysfluent discourse than peers without TBI (Ghayoumi et al 2015, Moran et al 2012.…”

“…This finding conflicts with prior reports of greater dysfluency in individuals with TBI (Ghayoumi et al . ; Moran et al . ) and might be, in part, related to the discourse task's design.…”

“…As described previously, EFs are vulnerable to TBI and individuals with TBI have been found to produce more dysfluent discourse than peers without TBI (Ghayoumi et al . , Moran et al . ).…”

“…, Ghayoumi et al . , Rousseaux et al . ); giving too much or too little information to their communication partners (Coelho et al .…”

“…The set of skills that facilitates appropriate communication has been termed pragmatics (Bates et al 1983), also referred to as social communication skills. In adults with TBI, social communication deficits may include impaired comprehension of indirect language (Bosco et al 2015, Channon and Watts 2003, Muller et al 2010; poor organization of spoken and written discourse (Coelho et al 2013, Ghayoumi et al 2015, Rousseaux et al 2010); giving too much or too little information to their communication partners , Moran et al 2012; and failing to adjust their language in response to the partner (Togher and Hand 1998) or task (Byom and Turkstra 2012). Overall, adults with TBI have been rated as less rewarding, appropriate and interesting conversation partners than their peers (Bond and Godrey 1997).…”