Poster C20, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 10:45 am – 12:30 pm, Restaurant Hall
Types of naming errors in aphasia: The effect of phonemic and semantic cueing
Georgios Papageorgiou1, Dimitrios Kasselimis1,2, Georgia Angelopoulou1, Dimitrios Tsolakopoulos1, Eleftherios Kavroulakis3, Argyro Tountopoulou4, Eleni Korompoki4, Ioannis Zalonis5, Sofia Vassilopoulou4, Constantin Potagas1;1Neuropsychology and Language Disorders Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 2Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 3Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 4Stroke Unit, 1st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 51st Neurology Department, Eginition Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Introduction Even though the available aphasia literature remains inconclusive with regard to the underlying mechanisms of anomic disorders, specific aspects of the anomic behavior have been extensively studied (Schwartz et al. 2009; Fridriksson et al. 2010). Two of these aspects are type of errors and the effect of cueing. Several studies suggest that semantic cues may facilitate naming by adding semantic information to the target word whereas phonemic cues may aid in accessing phonological representations (Howard & Gatehouse, 2006; Jefferies & Ralph, 2006). However, there are research findings indicating that this dichotomy may reflect an arguable, yet oversimplified correspondence between type of cueing and component of the naming process, which is hypothesized to involve, among other, access to phonological and semantic representations (Li & Williams, 1991). Since the available data on the efficacy of phonemic and semantic cueing in conjunction with the type of naming errors are somewhat sparse, we argue that studies in this direction would contribute to the elucidation of this quite complex issue. The objective of this study is to assess the type of naming errors, and post-cueing successive attempts - regardless of their overall performance on a given task- in relation to type of cue in aphasia. Methods Fifteen patients with acquired aphasia due to a left single stroke participated in this study. Language assessment included the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination and the Boston Naming Test. Number and types of errors were annotated and coded in three distinct categories: Semantic, phonemic, and neologisms. Number of correct answers following phonemic or semantic cueing as well as autocorrections were also annotated and coded into corresponding categories. MRI and/or CT scans were acquired for all patients and lesion loci were specified by a neuroradiologist. Results Our results indicated a clear-cut linear positive association between correct answers following phonemic cueing and frequency of semantic errors: patients who predominantly produced semantic errors showed significant improvement with phonemic cueing, but not with semantic cueing. No significant correlations were found between frequency of phonemic errors and correct answers following either semantic or phonemic cueing. With regard to the relationship between lesion topology and naming error types, posterior lesions were associated with elevated frequency of semantic errors, while lesions extending more anteriorly were associated with higher frequency of phonemic errors. Conclusion Our study provides insight to the efficacy of two different cues, widely implemented in clinical practice during naming assessment, in conjunction to predominant error types in aphasic patients, independently of overall performance. Our results indicate that phonemic cueing is more beneficial for patients who show a tendency towards more frequent semantic errors. We therefore suggest that aphasic patients who produce semantic paraphasias suffer from a deficit in word finding, associated to access and not storage. Lesion correlates of naming difficulties, as well as possible relationships between sites of brain damage and post-cueing correct responses are also discussed.
Themes: Disorders: Acquired, Language Production
Method: Behavioral