Aphasia Neuroplasticity Review

Thompson et al. (2010)

Reference

AuthorsThompson CK, den Ouden DB, Bonakdarpour B, Garibaldi K, Parrish TB
TitleNeural plasticity and treatment-induced recovery of sentence processing in agrammatism
ReferenceNeuropsychologia 2010; 48: 3211-3227
PMID20603138
DOI10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.06.036

Participants

LanguageUS English
Inclusion criteriaAgrammatic
Number of individuals with aphasia6
Number of control participants12
Were any of the participants included in any previous studies?No
Is age reported for patients and controls, and matched?Yes (mean 54 years, range 38-66 years)
Is sex reported for patients and controls, and matched?Yes (males: 5; females: 1)
Is handedness reported for patients and controls, and matched?Yes (right: 6; left: 0)
Is time post stroke onset reported and appropriate to the study design?Yes (range 6-146 months)
To what extent is the nature of aphasia characterized?Comprehensive battery
Language evaluationWAB, NAVS, narrative language sample
Aphasia severityAQ range 66.8-85.0
Aphasia typeAll agrammatic; per WAB scores provided: 3 Broca's, 3 unclassified
First stroke only?Yes
Stroke typeNot stated
To what extent is the lesion distribution characterized?Individual lesions
Lesion extentNot stated
Lesion location5 L MCA, 1 R MCA with aphasia
Participants notes

Imaging

ModalityfMRI
Is the study cross-sectional or longitudinal?Longitudinal—chronic treatment
If longitudinal, at what time point(s) were imaging data acquired?T1: pre-treatment/chronic; T2: post-treatment, 9-15 weeks later
If longitudinal, was there any intervention between the time points?Treatment of underlying forms
Is the scanner described?Yes (Siemens Trio 3 Tesla)
Is the timing of stimulus presentation and image acquisition clearly described and appropriate?No (total images acquired not stated)
Design typeEvent-related
Total images acquirednot stated
Are the imaging acquisition parameters, including coverage, adequately described and appropriate?Yes (whole brain)
Is preprocessing and intrasubject coregistration adequately described and appropriate?Yes
Is first level model fitting adequately described and appropriate?Yes
Is intersubject normalization adequately described and appropriate?Yes
Imaging notes

Conditions

Are the conditions clearly described?Yes
ConditionResponse typeRepetitionsAll groups could do?All individuals could do?
auditory sentence-picture matching (auditory; object cleft)Button press60NoNo
auditory sentence-picture matching (subject cleft)Button press60YesYes
auditory sentence-picture matching (simple past tense active)Button press60YesNo
restNoneimplicit baselineN/AN/A
Conditions notes

Contrasts

Are the contrasts clearly described?Yes

Contrast 1: auditory sentence-picture matching (all three sentence types) vs rest

Language conditionAuditory sentence-picture matching (all three sentence types)
Control conditionRest
Are the conditions matched for visual demands?No
Are the conditions matched for auditory demands?No
Are the conditions matched for motor demands?No
Are the conditions matched for cognitive/executive demands?No
Is accuracy matched between the language and control tasks for all relevant groups?N/A, tasks not comparable
Is reaction time matched between the language and control tasks for all relevant groups?N/A, tasks not comparable
Behavioral data notes
Are control data reported in this paper or another that is referenced?No
Does the contrast selectively activate plausible relevant language regions in the control group?Unknown
Are activations lateralized in the control data?Unknown
Control activation notes
Contrast notes

Analyses

Are the analyses clearly described?Yes

ROI analysis 1

First level contrastAuditory sentence-picture matching (all three sentence types) vs rest
Analysis classLongitudinal change in aphasia
Group(s)Aphasia T2 vs T1
Covariate
Is the second level contrast valid in terms of the group(s), time point(s), and measures involved?Yes
Is accuracy matched across the second level contrast?Appear similar
Is reaction time matched across the second level contrast?Appear similar
Behavioral data notes
Type of analysisRegions of interest (ROI)
ROI typeAnatomical
How many ROIs are there?18
What are the ROI(s)?(1) L BA 7; (2) L BA 9; (3) L BA 13; (4) L BA 21; (5) L BA 22; (6) L BA 39; (7) L BA 40; (8) L BA 44; (9) L BA 45; (10-18) homotopic counterparts
How are the ROI(s) defined?WFU pickatlas; proportion of patients who showed increases and decreases in (parts of) each ROI in individual fixed effects SPM analyses
Correction for multiple comparisonsNo correction
Statistical details
Findings↑ L angular gyrus
↑ L superior parietal
↑ L mid temporal
↑ R supramarginal gyrus
↑ R superior parietal
↓ L insula
↓ L posterior STG
Findings notesThese are the regions involved in what the authors interpret as a "general shift"

Notes

Excluded analysesIndividual patient analyses