Naming Difficulties Research Articles

Naming Abilities in Low-Proficiency Second Language Learners

Difficulties in second language (L2) learning are often associated with recognizable learning difficulties in native language (L1), such as in dyslexia. However, some individuals have low L2 proficiency but intact L1 reading skills. These L2 learners experience frequent tip-of-the-tongue states while naming in L1, which indicates that they have a weakness in retrieval of phonological codes of words. The authors hypothesized that if naming ability is shared across languages, this difficulty would reemerge in L2 naming, which was tested using the tip-of-the-tongue experimental paradigm. Consistent with this hypothesis, low-proficiency L2 learners (n = 15) reported more tip-of-the-tongue states, more frequently mispronounced correctly retrieved words, and benefited less from phonological cuing compared to high-proficiency L2 learners (n = 23). It is notable that low-proficiency L2 learners performed worse than individuals with dyslexia (n = 16) on some of these measures, despite the same level of L2 proficiency. These results indicate that L2 naming difficulties of low-proficiency L2 learners are a manifestation not merely of their low L2 proficiency but rather of a general weakness in phonological word form retrieval, which is shared across languages. More broadly, the study provides further evidence for the existence of a distinct profile of cognitive weaknesses characteristic of the behavioral phenotype of low-proficiency L2 learners.

Crossed aphasia after right anterior temporal lobectomy. A case report

The occurrence of crossed aphasia as a complication after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery is extremely rare. We report the case of a 47-year-old right-handed patient with drug‐resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) who developed a transitory aphasic syndrome after a right temporal anterior lobectomy. This syndrome was characterized by anomia, poor verbal fluency, verbal perseveration, and verbal comprehension difficulties. He also showed writing difficulties, reading substitutions, and calculation task errors. The patient was regularly assessed with language tasks, and showed a spontaneous and progressive recovery of his symptoms, with remaining naming difficulties. We discuss the role that epileptogenic zone could play in cortical reorganization of the language systems.

Nomeação rápida, leitura e compreensão em escolares com dificuldades de aprendizagem

To compare and correlate the performance of students with learning difficulties in rapid naming, reading and comprehension. Participants were 32 students from 4th grade of elementary school of both genders, with ages between 11 years and 4 months and 12 years and 7 months. The first and second oral reading of a text selected based on the indication of 4th grade teachers were conducted, as well as the first and second reading comprehension task composed by four questions presented right after the reading, to which students should answered orally, and the rapid naming task from the Test of Cognitive-Linguistic Performance, individual version. Differences were found between the first and the second comprehension scores, and between rapid naming, first and second reading. There was a strong correlation between comprehension and reading, suggesting that the performance in the first reading significantly influenced the performance in the second reading, which also occurred for comprehension. The delay in the activities of naming, reading and comprehension in the first evaluation provoked failures in the phoneme-grapheme conversion that may be enough to cause learning difficulties in reading.

Comorbid Multiple Sclerosis and TDP-43 Proteinopathy in a Gulf War Sea Captain

Comorbid Multiple Sclerosis and TDP-43 Proteinopathy in a Gulf War Sea Captain

The influence of psycholinguistic variables on articulatory errors in naming in progressive motor speech degeneration

We describe an analysis of speech errors on a confrontation naming task in a man with progressive speech degeneration of 10-year duration from Pick’s disease. C.S. had a progressive non-fluent aphasia together with a motor speech impairment and early assessment indicated some naming impairments. There was also an absence of significant phonological or semantic impairment. In order to examine naming difficulties and the factors that influence his speech production errors, we selected 210 words varying in frequency, age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, phonemic length and syllable length and conducted a logistic regression analysis on a range of speech production error types (phone omissions, additions, substitutions, response delays, overall errors). No significant naming errors due to lexical access were found. The only significant predictor of speech articulation errors was phonemic length, with none of the other lexical variables influencing speech production error. The only error type predicted was phone omissions. Results suggest that C.S.’s speech and naming errors indicate compromised speech programming/planning rather than lexical selection and we conclude that this pattern of findings is indicative of problems with motor speech production.

Effect of aging on learning new names and descriptions for objects

ABSTRACT The present study consisted of two experiments to compare new word learning in healthy young (N = 11) and older (N = 17) adults within an explicit learning paradigm. Experiment 1 investigated the new name learning for familiar objects, while Experiment 2 investigated learning names and descriptions for unfamiliar objects. Participants attended five learning sessions over 5 consecutive days, during which they viewed objects with novel names with/without descriptions. The older adults were as accurate as the young adults when recalling and recognizing new names during the learning sessions. With respect to response times, the older adults were as rapid as the young adults at recognizing the new names for the familiar objects, but were slower during the follow-up sessions. The older adults were also slower when recognizing new names for unfamiliar objects. When recognizing unfamiliar object descriptions, the older adults were significantly less accurate than the young adults. These results may have implications for the treatment of acquired naming difficulties and second language learning in older adults.

A study of word finding difficulties in Spanish speakers with temporal lobe epilepsy

It is well established that naming deficits can be found in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). The aim of this study was to determine in Spanish speakers with pharmacoresistant TLE the characteristics of subjective naming difficulties and to examine performance in a definition task and a picture task in left TLE and right TLE. We observed that almost one-third of patients report frequent and severe word finding problems during spontaneous speech. In naming tests, our patients exhibited delayed times for finding words. Even if the target word was identified and semantically activated, there was difficulty with lexical access, which improved when a phonetic cue was given. Left TLE patients derived a lower benefit from phonetic cues in accessing words, even when the word is known and recognized semantically. These findings were not related to any demographic or clinical characteristics analyzed. The fact that the only weakly lateralized variable has been a lexical access facilitation measurement could support a lexical access hypothesis for naming deficits in TLE.

Written media coverage of aphasia: A review

Background: Public knowledge of aphasia and its effects is consistently low, and significantly lower than other disorders with a similar prevalence. Knowledge of aphasia among the general public is critical, not just for its effect on funding and policy, but most importantly for the person with aphasia and their reintegration into the community. Aims: As the public hear about health issues from the media, this study investigates the quantity of aphasia-related news in the written media in 1999 and 2009, compared to Parkinson's disease (PD); it also describes the content of aphasia news for both years. Methods & Procedures: A number of written news databases (covering international English-only national and regional newspapers accessible to the public) were searched for the term “aphasia” and “Parkinson's disease”. The nature and extent of information on aphasia was also determined. Outcomes & Results: Although the frequency of aphasia-related items increased four-fold across this decade, it is still mentioned only once for every 27 PD-related articles. In both years the information on aphasia imparted to the public is limited; it lacks detail regarding aphasia's complex nature, the effects on the person and their family, recovery, and rehabilitation. The depiction of aphasia is often confusing and inaccurate, with media focusing on dramatic aspects or medical opinion. Aphasia is also used colloquially to indicate silenced or tongue-tied, or for a naming difficulty in non-medical sources. Conclusions: Considering the limited coverage of, lack of information on, and bewildering interpretations of aphasia in the media, it is not surprising that public knowledge of aphasia is sparse and confused. These findings intensify the urgent need to enhance and extend aphasia's representation in all forms of media, and can provide professionals, those affected by aphasia, and the public with a focus for education and awareness raising.

Teaching Neuro Images : Primary progressive aphasia

A 49-year-old right-handed woman without family history of neurodegenerative conditions was evaluated for fluency and naming difficulties that developed over 10 …

Aphasia in border-zone infarcts has a specific initial pattern and good long-term prognosis

While border-zone infarcts (BZI) account for about 10% of strokes, studies on related aphasia are infrequent. The aim of this work was to redefine specifically their early clinical pattern and evolution. We prospectively studied consecutive patients referred to our stroke unit within a 2-year period. Cases of aphasia in right-handed patients associated with a MRI confirmed left-sided hemispheric BZI were included. These patients had a standardized language examination in the first 48 h, at discharge from stroke unit and between 6 and 18 months later. Eight patients were included. Three had anterior (MCA/ACA), two posterior (MCA/PCA), two both anterior and posterior, and one bilateral BZI. All our patients initially presented transcortical mixed aphasia, characterized by comprehension and naming difficulties associated with preserved repetition. In all patients, aphasia rapidly improved. It fully recovered within a few days in three patients. Initial improvement was marked, although incomplete in the five remaining patients: their aphasias specifically evolved according to the stroke location toward transcortical motor aphasia for the three patients with anterior BZI and transcortical sensory aphasia for the two patients with posterior BZI. All patients made a full language recovery within 18 months after stroke. We report a specific aphasic pattern associated with hemispheric BZI, including an excellent long-term outcome. These findings appear relevant to (i) clinically suspect BZI and (ii) plan rehabilitation and inform the patient and his family of likelihood of full language recovery.

A set of high quality colour images with Spanish norms for seven relevant psycholinguistic variables: The Nombela naming test

ABSTRACT This paper presents a new corpus of 140 high quality colour images belonging to 14 subcategories and covering a range of naming difficulty. One hundred and six Spanish speakers named the items and provided data for several psycholinguistic variables: age of acquisition, familiarity, manipulability, name agreement, typicality and visual complexity. Furthermore, we also present lexical frequency data derived internet search hits. Apart from the large number of variables evaluated, these stimuli present an important advantage with respect to other comparable image corpora in so far as naming performance in healthy individuals is less prone to ceiling effect problems. Reliability and validity indexes showed that our items display similar psycholinguistic characteristics to those of other corpora. In sum, this set of ecologically valid stimuli provides a useful tool for scientists engaged in cognitive and neuroscience-based research.

Conduction aphasia, sensory-motor integration, and phonological short-term memory – An aggregate analysis of lesion and fMRI data

Conduction aphasia is a language disorder characterized by frequent speech errors, impaired verbatim repetition, a deficit in phonological short-term memory, and naming difficulties in the presence of otherwise fluent and grammatical speech output. While traditional models of conduction aphasia have typically implicated white matter pathways, recent advances in lesions reconstruction methodology applied to groups of patients have implicated left temporoparietal zones. Parallel work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has pinpointed a region in the posterior most portion of the left planum temporale, area Spt, which is critical for phonological working memory. Here we show that the region of maximal lesion overlap in a sample of 14 patients with conduction aphasia perfectly circumscribes area Spt, as defined in an aggregate fMRI analysis of 105 subjects performing a phonological working memory task. We provide a review of the evidence supporting the idea that Spt is an interface site for the integration of sensory and vocal tract-related motor representations of complex sound sequences, such as speech and music and show how the symptoms of conduction aphasia can be explained by damage to this system.

Is Phonological-Lexical Representation Preserved in Moderate Stage Alzheimer Disease? Evidence From the Efficacy of Korean Syllabic Cues

Patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) usually experience naming difficulty due to storage and access problems in phonological-lexical representation. Investigating naming response patterns followed by cueing may help us to understand the underlying mechanism of naming deficits in AD. A total of 221 patients with mild cognitive impairment and AD [Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) 0.5, 1, 2] were included as subjects. Sixty items of the Korean version of the Boston Naming Test were given, and upon failure, semantic/syllabic cues were verbally presented. From the results, even in the CDR 2 group, which is considered to be a moderate stage of AD, syllabic cues significantly facilitated correct responses. Our findings are in contrast with previous studies conducted with English-speaking patients, which reported that phonological-lexical representation may have been disrupted in the moderate stage of AD, and that none of the cues facilitated correct word retrieval. The difference may be ascribed to the fact that direct access to the phonological-lexical representation via syllabic cues was possible in the confrontation naming task performed by the Korean patients. It can be concluded that phonological-lexical representation in moderate stage Korean AD might be partially preserved because syllabic cues in AD patients were effective in facilitating target words.

Single-trial fMRI Shows Contralesional Activity Linked to Overt Naming Errors in Chronic Aphasic Patients

We used fMRI to investigate the roles played by perilesional and contralesional cortical regions during language production in stroke patients with chronic aphasia. We applied comprehensive psycholinguistic analyses based on well-established models of lexical access to overt picture-naming responses, which were evaluated using a single trial design that permitted distinction between correct and incorrect responses on a trial-by-trial basis. Although both correct and incorrect naming responses were associated with left-sided perilesional activation, incorrect responses were selectively associated with robust right-sided contralesional activity. Most notably, incorrect responses elicited overactivation in the right inferior frontal gyrus that was not observed in the contrasts for patients' correct responses or for responses of age-matched control subjects. Errors were produced at slightly later onsets than accurate responses and comprised predominantly semantic paraphasias and omissions. Both types of errors were induced by pictures with greater numbers of alternative names, and omissions were also induced by pictures with late acquired names. These two factors, number of alternative names per picture and age of acquisition, were positively correlated with activation in left and right inferior frontal gyri in patients as well as control subjects. These results support the hypothesis that some right frontal activation may normally be associated with increasing naming difficulty, but in patients with aphasia, right frontal overactivation may reflect ineffective effort when left hemisphere perilesional resources are insufficient. They also suggest that contralesional areas continue to play a role--dysfunctional rather than compensatory--in chronic aphasic patients who have experienced a significant degree of recovery.

Atypical semantic knowledge and autobiographical memory disorder in a young adult with Downs syndrome

A study of lexical semantic knowledge and autobiographical memory is described in PQ, a 22-year-old male with Downs syndrome. Performance is compared with younger typically developing verbal mental age controls. PQ's lexical stores contained a normal number of items, however, he was impaired at naming both pictures and item descriptions. PQ's own descriptions of items contained a normal volume of information, but the pattern of information differed from normal as he produced less ‘sensory’ and more ‘thematic’ and ‘functional’ information. PQ has an autobiographical memory deficit. His ability to recall ‘specific’ memories was significantly impoverished. It is suggested that both PQ's naming difficulties and his autobiographical memory disorder may reflect atypical knowledge specification with absence of distinctive featural knowledge and increased conceptual overlap and looser networks pervasive across both semantic and autobiographical memory systems.

Clinical Reasoning: A 59-year-old man who became lost in his own home

A 59-year-old right-handed man was referred to the Memory Center of an academic hospital for progressive cognitive decline. His past medical history included hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and prostate cancer. There was no family history of any psychiatric or neurologic disorders. The patient's symptoms began 3 years prior to presentation with memory loss and word-finding difficulties. Six months later, his wife observed a progressive loss of interest in his previous hobbies and increasing apathy. Twelve months after symptom onset, the patient began having trouble finding his way home when driving. At the same time, his wife observed a personality change, describing her husband as “childlike,” and said he began to follow her wherever she went. A year later, the patient developed difficulties with reading and spelling and became unable to plan ahead. His memory for events deteriorated and he had difficulty recognizing familiar faces. He became preoccupied over an old conflict with his son. He was unable to perform everyday activities autonomously. His difficulties in spatial orientation progressed until he ultimately got lost in the home he had lived in for 10 years. Prior to presentation, he began making sexually inappropriate comments that contrasted with his concurrent loss of libido. The neuropsychological evaluation upon admission revealed a severe amnestic syndrome, difficulties in naming and verbal comprehension, visuospatial impairment, a cognitive and behavioral prefrontal syndrome, and multimodal visual agnosia including prosopagnosia. The rest of the neurologic examination was normal. ### Questions for consideration: 1. What is early-onset dementia? 2. What are the etiologies of early-onset dementia? 3. What is the diagnostic strategy? The International …

Modality-specific naming impairment after traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Objective: To investigate neurocognitive and language functions in a single case presenting with modality-specific naming difficulties secondary to traumatic brain injury (TBI).Design: A comprehensive neuropsychological testing and specific assessment of naming and recognition functions were administered. Follow-up testing was administered 2 years post-injury to evaluate syndrome evolution. Rehabilitative intervention is described.Results: Ability to name visually presented objects was greatly impaired. The patient can describe or demonstrate the use of objects she cannot name and to sort them into their appropriate categories, indicating adequate non-verbal recognition. The impairment is specific to visual naming, as recognition through modalities different from vision is adequate (e.g. by touching the object, hearing its sound or being provided with verbal definition of it). This study and follow-up testing illustrated the evolution of the deficit, from a visual agnosic impairment to the co-occurrence of partial deficit of visual naming of objects and letters (optic aphasia and alexia).Conclusion: The patient presents with mild pre-semantic deficit (in mapping visual information with semantics) as well as post-semantic impairments (in the association between semantics and lexical label). Such performance can be accommodated within Farah's formulation which implies superadditive mild damage at several stages of object recognition naming model.

Evidence for a basal temporal visual language center

Dejerine and Benson and Geschwind postulated disconnection of the dominant angular gyrus from both visual association cortices as the basis for pure alexia, emphasizing disruption of white matter tracts in the dominant temporooccipital region. Recently functional imaging studies provide evidence for direct participation of basal temporal and occipital cortices in the cognitive process of reading. The exact location and function of these areas remain a matter of debate. To confirm the participation of the basal temporal region in reading. Extraoperative electrical stimulation of the dominant hemisphere was performed in three subjects using subdural electrodes, as part of presurgical evaluation for refractory epilepsy. Pure alexia was reproduced during cortical stimulation of the dominant posterior fusiform and inferior temporal gyri in all three patients. Stimulation resulted in selective reading difficulty with intact auditory comprehension and writing. Reading difficulty involved sentences and words with intact letter by letter reading. Picture naming difficulties were also noted at some electrodes. This region is located posterior to and contiguous with the basal temporal language area (BTLA) where stimulation resulted in global language dysfunction in visual and auditory realms. The location corresponded with the visual word form area described on functional MRI. These observations support the existence of a visual language area in the dominant fusiform and occipitotemporal gyri, contiguous with basal temporal language area. A portion of visual language area was exclusively involved in lexical processing while the other part of this region processed both lexical and nonlexical symbols.

Semantic error patterns on the Boston Naming Test in normal aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and mild Alzheimer's disease: Is there semantic disruption?

Naming difficulty is common in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the nature of this problem is not well established. The authors investigated the presence of semantic breakdown and the pattern of general and semantic errors in patients with mild AD, patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and normal controls by examining their spontaneous answers on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and verifying whether they needed or were benefited by semantic and phonemic cues. The errors in spontaneous answers were classified in four mutually exclusive categories (semantic errors, visual paragnosia, phonological errors, and omission errors), and the semantic errors were further subclassified as coordinate, superordinate, and circumlocutory. Patients with aMCI performed normally on the BNT and needed fewer semantic and phonemic cues than patients with mild AD. After semantic cues, subjects with aMCI and control subjects gave more correct answers than patients with mild AD, but after phonemic cues, there was no difference between the three groups, suggesting that the low performance of patients with AD cannot be completely explained by semantic breakdown. Patterns of spontaneous naming errors and subtypes of semantic errors were similar in the three groups, with decreasing error frequency from coordinate to superordinate to circumlocutory subtypes.

PRIMARY PROGRESSIVE APHASIA: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a focal dementia defined as a progressive dissolution in speech and language functions, including anomia (inability to retrieve nouns upon demand), agrammatism (inappropriate word order or use of prepositions), or loss of semantic knowledge about words and objects.1–5 Neuroimaging studies in PPA show metabolic dysfunction and atrophy in language areas, including the left inferior frontal, perisylvian, and temporal cortices.2,6 We describe a poet with recently diagnosed PPA, in whom naming, grammatism, rhyming ability, and semantic knowledge were progressively disturbed. Quantitative analysis of his poetry from four different time points over a span of 10 years showed parallel deterioration of all these faculties, commencing 3 years before first notice of disease onset. ### Case report. A 69-year-old community rabbi and amateur poet was self-referred to our neurology department for evaluation of complaints of deterioration in linguistic capacity, manifesting primarily as difficulty writing poems 9 months previously. Initial neuropsychological examination (table e-1 on the Neurology ® Web site at www.neurology.org) showed moderate global language disturbance, with difficulties in language comprehension, speech, naming, repetition, word generation, reading, writing, and abstraction. Executive functions were mildly impaired, as were problem-solving and semantic knowledge. Short-term memory skills and parietal functions were intact. …