Damage to the dominant arcuate fasciculus degrades auditory comprehension in non-fluent aphasia

Abstract

Objective To investigate the correlation between damage to the dominant arcuate fasciculus (AF) and the occurrence of auditory comprehension dysfunction in post-stroke aphasia. Methods Eighteen stroke survivors with non-fluent aphasia were recruited into the observation group, and nine healthy counterparts were chosen for the control group. All received diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans and fractional anisotropy (FA) values were measured. A Chinese aphasia battery was used to evaluate the aphasics′ language functioning, with the listening true or false, listening recognition and oral instruction auditory comprehension sub-scales used as the observation indices. Results There were significant differences between the two groups in the FA value of the dominant AF. Spearman correlation showed that the FA value of the dominant AF was positively related to the listening recognition results. Conclusions Damage to the dominant AF may be one of the reasons for auditory comprehension dysfunction in post-stroke aphasia. It is significantly related to listening recognition. Key words: Diffusion tensor imaging; Stroke; Aphasia; Arcuate fasciculus; Auditory comprehension