Word Retrieval Research Articles

Training flexible conceptual retrieval in post-stroke aphasia

ABSTRACT Semantic therapy in post-stroke aphasia typically focusses on strengthening links between conceptual representations and their lexical-articulatory forms to aid word retrieval. However, research has shown that semantic deficits in this group can affect both verbal and non-verbal tasks, particularly in patients with deregulated retrieval as opposed to degraded knowledge. This study, therefore, aimed to facilitate semantic cognition in a sample of such patients with post-stroke semantic aphasia (SA) by training the identification of both strong and weak semantic associations and providing explicit pictorial feedback that demonstrated both common and more unusual ways of linking concepts together. We assessed the effects of this training on (i) trained and untrained items; and (ii) trained and untrained tasks in eleven individuals with SA. In the training task, the SA group showed improvement with practice, particularly for trained items. A similar untrained task using pictorial stimuli (Camel and Cactus Test) also improved. Together, these results suggest that semantic training can be beneficial in patients with SA and may show some degree of generalization to untrained situations. Future research should seek to understand which patients are most likely to benefit from this type of training.

Is word learning enough? Improved verb phrase production following cueing of verbs and nouns in primary progressive aphasia

There is little evidence that, for people with aphasia, successful outcomes following lexical retrieval treatment generalise beyond single word retrieval to sentence production or daily communication. This study aimed to develop greater understanding of the mechanisms of generalisation. We employed a cueing task to simulate the effects of lexical retrieval treatment. A single noun or verb was provided and the effect on production of a corresponding verb phrase examined. Sixteen individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) were asked to produce verb phrases to describe action pictures accompanied by i) a verb cue where a spoken and written verb was also presented with the picture; ii) a noun cue where a spoken and written noun was presented with the picture; iii) a no cue condition where only the picture was presented. Across the case series, both verb and noun cueing improved verb phrase production relative to no cue, with verb cueing being most effective. At the level of the single case, thirteen individuals showed significantly increased production of verb phrases with verb cueing, and seven individuals with noun cueing. In addition, seven individuals showed significantly greater benefit from verb cueing compared to noun cueing, and none showed the reverse. This suggests that improvements in verb phrase production may also be achievable following treatment-induced improvements in lexical retrieval. Greater benefit from verb cues than noun cues raises important theoretical issues regarding sentence construction and clinical issues around the most effective treatment techniques for people with aphasia.

Linking L2 proficiency and patterns of functional connectivity during L1 word retrieval

Second language (L2) learners differ greatly in language proficiency, which is partially explained by variability in native language (L1) skills. The present fMRI study explored the neural underpinnings of the L1-L2 link. Twenty L2 learners completed a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) task that required retrieving words in L1. Low-proficiency L2 learners showed greater functional connectivity for correct and TOT responses between the left inferior frontal gyrus and right-sided homologues of the temporoparietal regions that support phonological processing (e.g., supramarginal gyrus), possibly reflecting difficulty with phonological retrieval. High-proficiency L2 learners showed greater connectivity for erroneous responses (TOT in particular) between the left inferior frontal gyrus and regions of left medial temporal lobe (e.g., hippocampus), associated with implicit learning processes. The difference between low- and high-proficiency L2 learners in functional connectivity, which is evident even during L1 processing, may affect L2 learning processes and outcomes.

Assessment of Memory among Traumatic Brain Injury Patients during Follow-Up at a Tertiary Health Care Facility in Rural Setting

Abstract Background Head injury is an important public health problem nowadays. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from external force that leads to damage to brain tissue. Main causes of TBI are motor vehicle collisions and fall from height. One of the primary symptoms after TBI is impaired word retrieval. Therefore, this study was undertaken to assess memory impairment in TBI patients following treatment to asses a residual memory status to declare them apt for official works if improved enough. Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess memory impairment in TBI patients to assess the residual memory status following treatment. Materials and Methods The study was conducted in Outpatient Department (OPD) of Neurosurgery, Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. The TBI patients were assessed by predesigned memory assessment questionnaire during their follow-up following discharge from hospital. Results A total of 65 patients with TBI were assessed, of which 21 (32.3%) cases had frontal lobe injuries with 9 of 21 having memory loss (42.9% cases). The temporoparietal lobe was affected in 10 (15.4%) cases out of which 5 developed memory loss, that is, 50% cases. The multiple lobes were involved in 24 (36.9%) cases, out of which memory impairment occurred in 9 cases, that is, 37.5%. Four of total five cases (80%) of diffuse axonal injury had memory loss. Further, 16.9% (n = 11) TBI patients were unable to perform digit span test (immediate memory test), 44.6% (n = 29) cases could not perform three-word recall at 5 minutes (short-term memory test), and 15.4% (n = 10) cases could not perform (long-term memory test). Conclusion The study showed that memory assessment is required in TBI patients for instituting proper rehabilitation measures and to allow them for sensitive memory-related work following discharge from hospital.

The Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control on Word Retrieval in Aging and Aphasia.

Purpose When speakers retrieve words, they do so extremely quickly and accurately-both speed and accuracy of word retrieval are compromised in persons with aphasia (PWA). This study examined the contribution of two domain-general mechanisms: processing speed and cognitive control on word retrieval in PWA. Method Three groups of participants, neurologically healthy young and older adults and PWA (n = 15 in each group), performed processing speed, cognitive control, lexical decision, and word retrieval tasks on a computer. The relationship between word retrieval speed and other tasks was examined for each group. Results Both aging and aphasia resulted in slower processing speed but did not affect cognitive control. Word retrieval response time delays in PWA were eliminated when processing speed was accounted for. Word retrieval speed was predicted by individual differences in cognitive control in young and older adults and additionally by processing speed in older adults. In PWA, word retrieval speed was predicted by severity of language deficit and cognitive control. Conclusions This study shows that processing speed is compromised in aphasia and could account for their slowed response times. Individual differences in cognitive control predicted word retrieval speed in healthy adults and PWA. These findings highlight the need to include nonlinguistic cognitive mechanisms in future models of word retrieval in healthy adults and word retrieval deficits in aphasia.

Lexical Planning in People Who Stutter: A Defect in Lexical Encoding or the Planning Scope?

Developmental stuttering is a widely discussed speech fluency disorder. Research on its mechanism has focused on an atypical interface between the planning (PLAN) and execution (EX) processes, known collectively as the EXPLAN model. However, it remains unclear how this atypical interface influences people who stutter. A straightforward assumption is that stuttering speakers adopt a smaller scope of speech planning, whereas a defect in word retrieval can be confounding. To shed light on this issue, we took the semantic blocking effect as an index to examine lexical planning in word and phrase production. In Experiment 1, for word production, pictures from the same semantic category were combined to form homogeneous blocks, and pictures from different categories were combined to form heterogeneous blocks. A typical effect of semantic blocking showing longer naming latencies for homogeneous blocks than heterogeneous ones was observed for both stuttering and fluent speakers. However, this effect was smaller for stuttering speakers, when it was subject to lexical defects in stuttering. In Experiment 2, for a conjoined noun phrase production task, the pictures referring to the first noun were manipulated into homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions. The semantic blocking effect was also much smaller for stuttering speakers, indicating a smaller scope of lexical planning. Therefore, the results provided more evidence in support of the EXPLAN model and indicated that a smaller scope of lexical planning rather than lexical defects causes the atypical interface for stuttering. Moreover, a comparison between these two tasks showed that the study findings have implications for syntactic defects in stuttering.

Outcomes of semantic feature analysis treatment for aphasia with and without apraxia of speech.

To date, studies have not explored whether a dual diagnosis of aphasia plus apraxia of speech (AOS) versus aphasia alone (APH) affects the response to language-based naming treatments. To compare the effects of semantic feature analysis (SFA) treatment for individuals with APH versus aphasia plus AOS, and to test if the presence of AOS impacted the effects of treatment. A non-randomized experimental group study was conducted to explore the treatment, generalization and maintenance effects between the AOS and APH groups. Participants included nine individuals with aphasia and 11 with concomitant aphasia and AOS. Dependent measures included lexical accuracy, number of sound-level distortions, and lexical stress and syllable segmentation errors. Both groups showed significantly improved naming accuracy of trained items for up to 2 months post-treatment. Improvement on naming accuracy of untrained items post-treatment, both semantically related and unrelated to trained items, was lower in magnitude. That this may have been due to effects of repeated probing (which included target repetition) or regression to the mean cannot be excluded. There was a tendency for the AOS group to respond slightly better to treatment than the APH group overall, which was not correlated with aphasia severity. Also, measures of phonetic accuracy and fluency improved for both groups, with no main effect of group. Treatment effects did not generalize to formal measures of (untrained) picture naming or expression of correct information units in discourse in a story retelling task. Findings indicate that individuals with aphasia plus AOS can gain equivalent benefits in word retrieval and production from the language-based SFA treatment as individuals with aphasia alone. This may be, in part, due to the tendency for SFA to incorporate principles of practice that are known to support motor learning in AOS, such as high intensity, random stimulus presentation and variable practice. Findings provide further support for high-intensity practice and use of self-generated features to facilitate maintenance of effects. What this paper adds What is already known on the subject SFA treatment is the most common intervention for word-finding difficulties for individuals with aphasia. AOS is a common concomitant disorder to aphasia. However, it is not clear whether the effects of language-based SFA treatment are mitigated by the presence of AOS, which tends to respond well to treatments focused on articulatory-kinematic aspects of speech movement. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This study compares the effects of SFA in a group of individuals with aphasia alone and a group with similar severity of aphasia but with concomitant AOS, ranging from mild to moderate-severe. Overall, AOS did not have a negative effect on response to the treatment. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Individuals with aphasia plus AOS can be expected to benefit to a similar degree from SFA as people with aphasia alone. It is likely that the use of practice principles of high intensity, random stimulus presentation and varied practice are important components of the protocol.

Rational Adaptation in Using Conceptual Versus Lexical Information in Adults With Aphasia.

The information theoretic principle of rational adaptation predicts that individuals with aphasia adapt to their language impairments by relying more heavily on comparatively unimpaired non-linguistic knowledge to communicate. This prediction was examined by assessing the extent to which adults with chronic aphasia due to left-hemisphere stroke rely more on conceptual rather than lexical information during verb retrieval, as compared to age-matched neurotypical controls. A primed verb naming task examined the degree of facilitation each participant group received from either conceptual event-related or lexical collocate cues, compared to unrelated baseline cues. The results provide evidence that adults with aphasia received amplified facilitation from conceptual cues compared to controls, whereas healthy controls received greater facilitation from lexical cues. This indicates that adaptation to alternative and relatively unimpaired information may facilitate successful word retrieval in aphasia. Implications for models of rational adaptation and clinical neurorehabilitation are discussed.

Word retrieval difficulty in adult females with the FMR1 premutation: Changes over time and across contexts

Individuals with a premutation of the fragile X mental retardation (FMR1) gene are at risk for a variety of psychological, physical, and cognitive issues, including difficulty with word retrieval. The present study examined three indicators of word retrieval difficulty; reduced productivity, reduced lexical diversity, and increased errors in word retrieval in a group of 38 female premutation carriers during standard-length speech samples collected over a period of eight years. Our results revealed that as women aged, they produced fewer words, produced fewer different words, and had greater word retrieval errors. In addition, the rate of word retrieval errors was highly correlated between two speaking contexts, indicating that this difficulty was pervasive and not solely the result of speaking in monologue. Our results suggest that subtle areas of cognitive decline emerge at a much earlier age among female premutation carriers than would be expected during healthy aging.

Validating Knowledge Contents with Blockchain-Assisted Gamified Crowdsourcing

This paper presents the use of gamified crowdsourcing for knowledge content validation. Constructing a high-quality knowledge base is crucial for building an intelligent system. We develop a refinement process for the knowledge base of our word retrieval assistant system, where each piece of knowledge is represented as a triple. To validate triples acquired from various sources, we introduce yes/no quizzes and present them to many casual users for their inputs. Only the triples voted “yes” by a sufficient number of users are incorporated into the main knowledge base. Users are incentivized by rewards based on their contribution to the validation process. To ensure transparency of the reward-giving process, blockchain is utilized to store logs of the users’ inputs from which the rewards are calculated. Different strategies are also proposed for selecting the next quiz. The simulation results indicate that the proposed approach has the potential to validate knowledge contents. This paper is a revised version of our conference paper presented at the 12th Asian Conference on Intelligent Information and Database Systems (ACIIDS 2020).

Cognitive and linguistic dysfunction after thalamic stroke and recovery process: possible mechanism.

Thalamic stroke may result in cognitive and linguistic problems, but the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Especially, it is still a matter of debate why thalamic aphasia occasionally occurs and then mostly recovers to some degree. We begin with a brief overview of the cognitive dysfunction and aphasia, and then review previous hypotheses of the underlying mechanism. We introduced a unique characteristic of relatively transient “word retrieval difficulty” of patients in acute phase of thalamic stroke. Word retrieval ability involves both executive function and speech production. Furthermore, SMA aphasia and thalamic aphasia may resemble in terms of the rapid recovery, thus suggesting a shared neural system. This ability is attributable to the supplementary motor area (SMA) and inferior frontal cortex (IFG) via the frontal aslant tract (FAT). To explore the possible mechanism, we applied unique hybrid neuroimaging techniques: single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (f-NIRS). SPECT can visualize the brain distribution associated with word retrieval difficulty, cognitive disability or aphasia after thalamic stroke, and f-NIRS focuses on SMA and monitors long-term changes in hemodynamic SMA responses during phonemic verbal task. SPECT yielded common perfusion abnormalities not only in the fronto–parieto–cerebellar–thalamic loop, but also in bilateral brain regions such as SMA, IFG and language-relevant regions. f-NIRS demonstrated that thalamic stroke developed significant word retrieval decline, which was intimately linked to posterior SMA responses. Word retrieval difficulty was rapidly recovered with increased bilateral SMA responses at follow-up NIRS. Together, we propose that the cognitive domain affected by thalamic stroke may be related to the fronto–parieto–cerebellar–thalamic loop, while the linguistic region may be attributable to SMA, IFG and language-related brain areas. Especially, bilateral SMA may play a crucial role in the recovery of word retrieval, and right language-related region, including IFG, angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus may determine recovery from thalamic aphasia.

A narrative review of risk factors and interventions for cancer-related cognitive impairment.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) refers to a series of cognitive impairment symptoms associated with alternations in brain structure and function, caused by a non-central nervous system malignant tumor and its related treatment. CRCI may present as memory loss, impaired concentration, difficulty in multitasking and word retrieval, and reduced comprehension speed. CRCI has become one of the prevalent factors that compromise the quality of life for cancer survivors. Different treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy, and targeted drugs, may contribute to CRCI. Meanwhile, patients’ factors, including emotional challenges and genetic makeup, also contribute to the development of CRCI. The condition can be treated with using stimulants methylphenidate and modafinil, metabolites of nicotine: cotinine, antidepressants of fluoxetine and fluvoxamine, dementia drug of donepezil, and antioxidants ZnSO4, n-acetyl cysteine, propofol, and Chinese herbal of silver leaf medicine. Psychotherapies, including meditation and relaxation, cognitive rehabilitation training, along with physical therapies, including aerobic exercise, resistance training, balance training, yoga, qigong, tai chi electroencephalogram biofeedback, and acupuncture, are also beneficial in alleviating cancer-related cognitive impairment symptoms. In recent years, researchers have focused on factors related to the condition and on the available interventions. However, most research was conducted independently, and no review has yet summarized the latest findings. This review details and discusses the status of related factors and potential treatments for CRCI. We also supply specific recommendations to facilitate future research and integration in this field.

Inferring Multilingual Domain-Specific Word Embeddings From Large Document Corpora

The use of distributed vector representations of words in Natural Language Processing has become established. To tailor general-purpose vector spaces to the context under analysis, several domain adaptation techniques have been proposed. They all require sufficiently large document corpora tailored to the target domains. However, in several cross-lingual NLP domains both large enough domain-specific document corpora and pre-trained domain-specific word vectors are hard to find for languages other than English. This paper aims at tackling the aforesaid issue. It proposes a new methodology to automatically infer aligned domain-specific word embeddings for a target language on the basis of the general-purpose and domain-specific models available for a source language (typically, English). The proposed inference method relies on a two-step process, which first automatically identifies domain-specific words and then opportunistically reuses the non-linear space transformations applied to the word vectors of the source language in order to learn how to tailor the vector space of the target language to the domain of interest. The performance of the proposed method was validated via extrinsic evaluation by addressing the established word retrieval task. To this aim, a new benchmark multilingual dataset, derived from Wikipedia, has been released. The results confirmed the effectiveness and usability of the proposed approach.

Word Retrieval based on FREAK Descriptor to Identify the Image of the English Letter that Corresponds to the First Letter of the Word

For the reason of colossal technological developments, the requirement of image information methods became a significant issue. The aim of this research was to retrieve the word based on Fast Retina Key-points (FREAK) descriptor .The suggested system consists of four stages. In the first stage, the images of English letters are loaded. Points are detected via SUSAN in the second stage. FREAK used in the third stage and then a database was created containing 26 English letters. The image to be tested was entered and the points are extracted in the fourth stage and then Manhattan distance was used to calculate the distance between the value of the test image descriptors and all the values of the descriptors in a database. The experimental results show that the precision and the recall values were high for retrieval of the words when using SUSAN because it extracts a large number of interest points compared to the Harris method. For example, for the letter H was 104 with SUSAN while it was 42 for Harris, therefore; the precision for retrieval of the word Hour was 89% and recall was 93% when using SUSAN while precision was 77% and recall was 80% when using Harris.

Nonauditory Functions in Low-performing Adult Cochlear Implant Users.

Despite substantial benefits of cochlear implantation (CI) there is a high variability in speech recognition, the reasons for which are not fully understood. Especially the group of low-performing CI users is under-researched. Because of limited perceptual quality, top-down mechanisms play an important role in decoding the speech signal transmitted by the CI. Thereby, differences in cognitive functioning and linguistic skills may explain speech outcome in these CI subjects. Fifteen post-lingually deaf CI recipients with a maximum speech perception of 30% in the Freiburger monosyllabic test (low performer = LP) underwent visually presented neurocognitive and linguistic test batteries assessing attention, memory, inhibition, working memory, lexical access, phonological input as well as automatic naming. Nineteen high performer (HP) with a speech perception of more than 70% were included as a control. Pairwise comparison of the two extreme groups and discrimination analysis were carried out. Significant differences were found between LP and HP in phonological input lexicon and word retrieval (p = 0.0039∗∗). HP were faster in lexical access (p = 0.017∗) and distinguished more reliably between non-existing and existing words (p = 0.0021∗∗). Furthermore, HP outperformed LP in neurocognitive subtests, most prominently in attention (p = 0.003∗∗). LP and HP were primarily discriminated by linguistic performance and to a smaller extent by cognitive functioning (canonic r = 0.68, p = 0.0075). Poor rapid automatic naming of numbers helped to discriminate LP from HP CI users 91.7% of the time. Severe phonologically based deficits in fast automatic speech processing contribute significantly to distinguish LP from HP CI users. Cognitive functions might partially help to overcome these difficulties.

Quantifying grammatical impairments in primary progressive aphasia: Structured language tests and narrative language production

PurposeThis study examined grammatical production impairments in primary progressive aphasia (PPA), as measured by structured tests and narrative samples. We aimed to quantify the strength of the relationship between grammatical measures across tasks, and identify factors that condition it. Three grammatical domains were investigated: overall sentence production, verb morphology, and verb-argument structure. Methods77 participants with PPA (34 PPA-G, 16 PPA-L, 15 PPA-S and 12 other) completed a battery of grammatical tests and a narrative language sample was obtained. Accuracy scores were computed for the language tests and the narrative samples were analyzed for both accuracy of selected narrative variables as well as grammatical diversity across the three grammatical domains. Principal components analysis (PCA) and multiple regression were used to examine cross-task relationships for all measures. ResultsAs expected on the basis of classification criteria, accuracy scores were lower for the PPA-G group as compared to the PPA-L and PPA-S participants for overall sentence production and verb morphology, but not argument structure. Grammatical accuracy in narratives strongly predicted overall language test performance in PPA-G, whereas grammatical diversity in narratives did so in PPA-L, and no significant correspondence between narrative and language test performance was found for PPA-S. For individuals with severe grammatical impairments only, error distribution for both morphology and argument structure was strongly associated in structured tasks and narratives. ConclusionsGrammatical production in narrative language predicts accuracy elicited with structured language tests in PPA. However, unique narrative production patterns distinguish PPA by subtype: accuracy for PPA-G, and grammatical diversity for PPA-L. The impairment in PPA-G is likely to reflect a core impairment in grammar whereas that of PPA-L may be closely tied to the word retrieval and verbal working memory deficits that characterize this variant. This underscores the theoretical distinction between PPA-L and PPA-G, as well as the importance of including grammatical diversity measures in analyses of language production, especially for patients who do not display frank agrammatism. Further, the results suggest that measures of domain-specific language deficits (i.e., verb morphology vs. argument structure) are robust across tasks only in individuals with severe grammatical impairments.

Neuropsychological, clinico‐pathologic, neuroimaging, and biomarker profiles of the MGH FTD Unit posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) cohort

AbstractBackgroundObjective: To present comprehensive data on the MGH FTD Unit PCA cohort. PCA is a neurodegenerative clinical syndrome usually arising from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) neuropathologic changes (ADNC). While visuoperceptual and spatial problems are typical early presenting symptoms, patients also report problems with spelling, calculation, and word retrieval. Due to significant heterogeneity in the syndrome, further classification of PCA by subtypes based on predominant cognitive impairments (dorsal, ventral, caudal, dominant parietal) has also been proposed. We launched our multidisciplinary MGH PCA program in 2008 to address the special care needs of this population, and to advance our scientific understanding of PCA and its treatment.Methods39 participants were recruited for research participation based on clinical diagnostic criteria consistent with PCA, including a dominant hemisphere variant (i.e., progressive Gerstmann‐like syndrome minimal visuospatial disturbance). Participants underwent structured review of symptoms and history; systematic neurological exam; comprehensive neuropsychological and speech‐language assessments; multimodal imaging (MRI and/or functional MRI and FDG, amyloid, and tau PET); and CSF analysis. Some patients have come to autopsy. We used the Neuropsychological Assessment Rating (NAR) scale to quantify performance in cognitive domains pertinent to PCA and for subtype classification.ResultsOf seven individuals for whom we have autopsy‐confirmed neuropathology, five had ADNC; one had lobar atrophy and tau pathology in a cortico‐basal degeneration (CBD) distribution; and one had Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration TDP43 Type A (GRN mutation). 22 patients had biomarkers consistent with ADNC (17 with elevated PiB PET imaging signal, 5 with AD‐like CSF ). Mean NAR domain scores (impairment level ratings: 0=Normal, .5=questionable/very mild, 1=mild, 2= moderate, 3=severe) revealed relatively normal Attention/Processing Speed (0.2); mildly impaired Executive Function (0.8) and Memory (1.1); questionably/very mildly impaired Language (0.5); and moderately impaired Visuospatial Function (2).ConclusionThe MGH PCA program has a robust cohort of patients with a comprehensive data set that includes standardized characterization of the PCA neurocognitive and neurologic profiles, high‐resolution MRI (structural, functional), multimodal PET imaging, CSF biomarkers, and in some cases neuropathology. This data set will allow for detailed examination and improved understanding of this atypical neurodegenerative syndrome. Additional analyses are ongoing, including tau imaging profiles.

Duration of verbal fluency inter‐word intervals and risk of cognitive impairment

AbstractBackgroundVerbal fluency tasks have widely recognized value for dementia diagnosis. Some studies suggest that detailed analysis of verbal fluency word lists may aid in prediction of future cognitive decline or dementia.MethodWe identified 701 stroke‐free participants in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, all of whom performed in the normal range on a cognitive screening test at baseline, but who suffered from acute or progressive incident cognitive impairment (ICI) during subsequent years. These cases were matched with 701 controls who did not suffer subsequent cognitive decline. Baseline letter F and animal fluency recordings were automatically transcribed using Amazon Web Services’ Transcribe , then manually corrected using a Matlab‐based graphical transcription tool for precise capture of utterance latencies and durations. We performed two statistical analyses on the durations of inter‐word intervals (IWI). The first employed mixed‐effects linear models with IWI as the dependent variable and several lexical (e.g., frequency, edit distance from previous word, etc.) and demographic covariates. The second employed Cox proportional hazards (CPH) models, with time to ICI as the dependent variable and summary measures of IWI (sum of z‐scores) as key predictors of interest.ResultMixed‐effects models show that semantic similarity of consecutive words and overall within‐task latency of words are the strongest predictors of IWI, but that future progressive cognitive decline is associated with longer IWI on the animal fluency task. CPH models show significant independent contributions of animal fluency raw score and IWI summary score. Slowing of word retrieval reflected by the latter score was associated with greater risk for cognitive decline.ConclusionDetailed analysis of IWI measured during fluency tasks may enhance the prognostic value of verbal fluency tests. The effect appears to be strongest with animal fluency predicting progressive decline.

Word retrieval improves following a mindful breathing exercise but is unrelated to dispositional mindfulness

ABSTRACT Mindfulness can reduce anxiety and improve attentional control, so we tested for relationships between mindfulness and performance on word retrieval tasks. In Study 1, college students experienced a 10-min mindful breathing exercise or control condition, and participants in the mindful breathing condition correctly named more pictures than participants in the control condition. Participants also completed a self-report measure of dispositional mindfulness, but scores were unrelated to picture naming performance. In Study 2, online participants completed the mindfulness measure and attempted to produce target words that fit definitions and reported their tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states. Neither TOT rate nor correct responding correlated with mindfulness scores, replicating Study 1 results with a larger, more varied sample. Results indicate that a mindful breathing exercise can facilitate word retrieval but that self-reported dispositional mindfulness does not positively affect word retrieval.

Factor Analysis of Spontaneous Speech in Aphasia.

Purpose Spontaneous speech tasks are critically important for characterizing spoken language production deficits in aphasia and for assessing the impact of therapy. The utility of such tasks arises from the complex interaction of linguistic demands (word retrieval, sentence formulation, articulation). However, this complexity also makes spontaneous speech hugely variable and difficult to assess. The current study aimed to simplify the problem by identifying latent factors underlying performance in spontaneous speech in aphasia. The ecological validity of the factors was examined by examining how well the factor structures corresponded to traditionally defined aphasia subtypes. Method A factor analysis was conducted on 17 microlinguistic measures of narratives from 274 individuals with aphasia in AphasiaBank. The resulting factor scores were compared across aphasia subtypes. Supervised (linear discriminant analysis) and unsupervised (latent profile analysis) classification techniques were then conducted on the factor scores and the solutions compared to traditional aphasia subtypes. Results Six factors were identified. Two reflected aspects of fluency, one at the phrase level (Phrase Building) and one at the narrative level (Narrative Productivity). Two other factors reflected the accuracy of productions, one at the word level (Semantic Anomaly) and one at the utterance level (Grammatical Error). The other two factors reflected the complexity of sentence structures (Grammatical Complexity) and the use of repair behaviors (Repair), respectively. Linear discriminant analyses showed that only about two thirds of speakers were classified correctly and that misclassifications were similar to disagreements between clinical diagnoses. The most accurately diagnosed syndromes were the largest groups-Broca's and anomic aphasia. The latent profile analysis also generated profiles similar to Broca's and anomic aphasia but separated some subtypes according to severity. Conclusions The factor solution and the classification analyses reflected broad patterns of spontaneous speech performance in a large and representative sample of individuals with aphasia. However, such data-driven approaches present a simplified picture of aphasia patterns, much as traditional syndrome categories do. To ensure ecological validity, a hybrid approach is recommended, balancing population-level analyses with examination of performance at the level of theoretically specified subgroups or individuals. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13232354.