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Changes in N400 topography following intensive speech language therapy for individuals with aphasia.

Abstract
Our goal was to characterize the effects of intensive aphasia therapy on the N400, an electrophysiological index of lexical-semantic processing. Immediately before and after 4 weeks of intensive speech-language therapy, people with aphasia performed a task in which they had to determine whether spoken words were a 'match' or a 'mismatch' to pictures of objects. Pre-therapy, people with aphasia exhibited an N400 mismatch effect that started over right hemisphere electrodes. Post-therapy, gains were seen in clinical measures of language ability, and the onset of the N400 was left-lateralized. No changes in the scalp distribution of the N400 were observed in healthy controls tested twice over the same 4 week interval. Since the distribution of the N400 after aphasia therapy differed from that of healthy controls, we conclude that it reflects the engagement of compensatory neural mechanisms for language processing rather than a return to a "normal" pattern of brain activation.
AuthorsK Ryan Wilson, Heather O'Rourke, Linda A Wozniak, Ellina Kostopoulos, Yannick Marchand, Aaron J Newman
JournalBrain and language (Brain Lang) Vol. 123 Issue 2 Pg. 94-103 (Nov 2012) ISSN: 1090-2155 [Electronic] Netherlands
PMID22944529 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
CopyrightCopyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Topics
  • Aphasia (physiopathology, rehabilitation)
  • Brain (physiopathology)
  • Electroencephalography
  • Evoked Potentials (physiology)
  • Humans
  • Language Therapy
  • Semantics
  • Speech Therapy

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