Article

Therapy for naming impairments post-stroke typically involves semantic and/or
phonologically-based tasks. However, the relationship between individuals' locus
of breakdown in word retrieval and their response to a particular treatment
approach remains unclear, and direct comparisons of treatments with different
targets (semantics, phonology) yet similar formats are lacking. This study
examined eight people with aphasia who each received 12 treatment sessions; half
the sessions involved a semantically-based treatment task, Semantic Feature
Analysis (SFA), and the other half involved a phonologically-based treatment
task, Phonological Components Analysis (PCA). Pre-therapy baseline accuracy
scores were compared to naming accuracy post-treatment and at follow-up
assessment. Seven of the eight participants showed significant improvements in
naming items treated with PCA, with six of these seven participants maintaining
improvements at follow-up. Four of the eight participants showed significant
improvements for items treated with SFA, with three of the four maintaining
improvements at follow-up. The semantic therapy was not beneficial for
participants with semantic deficits. In contrast, the phonological therapy was
beneficial for most participants, despite differences in underlying impairments.
Understanding the relationship between an individual's locus of breakdown in word
retrieval and response to different treatment tasks has the potential to optimise
targeted treatment.

Langue : ANGLAIS