http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393212001522
Abstract
Research
on the neural substrate of aphasia recovery has consistently increased
since the advent of functional neuroimaging. The evidence from
therapy-induced aphasia recovery studies shows that better recovery
results from the reactivation of left hemisphere function; still, the
specific left hemisphere key areas that sign successful outcome with a
specific therapy approach remain to be identified. Nine participants
suffering from aphasia received brief and intensive therapy with
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA). Behavioural and neuroimaging data
during overt picture naming were obtained prior to and after therapy.
This paper reports on a group of participants having benefited from SFA,
and two distinct patterns of improvement.
Correlational
analysis showed that differences in outcome were not related to lesion
size, but were negatively correlated with damage to Broca's area (BA45).
Moreover, a group analysis showed that therapy-induced recovery
following SFA was characterized by a) a significant correlation between
improvement and activation in the left precentral gyrus (BA4/6) before
therapy, and b) the recruitment of the left inferior parietal lobule, an
area known for its role in semantic integration, following therapy with
SFA. Individual fMRI analyses showed that although adaptive brain
plasticity appeared to operate differently in each patient, best
responders to SFA therapy recruited less areas after training compared
to participants having shown less recovery who showed a larger number of
activated areas sustaining recovery. The results of the present study
suggest that a significant activation of BA4/6 could indicate the use of
SFA to achieve successful outcome. Also our results suggest that
greater SFA improvement in chronic aphasia is associated with
recruitment of areas in the left hemisphere.
Highligths
►
We are reporting on a group (9) of participants that benefited from SFA
therapy. ► We examined therapy-induced brain plasticity with fMRI using
both individual and group analysis. ► Most successful responders
recruited less after therapy whereas less successul recruited more. ►
Group analysis showed the recruitment of the left inferior parietal
lobule after therapy. Correlational analysis showed that improvement was
predicted by the left precentral gyrus activation.
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