Embodiment in communication--aphasia, apraxia and the possible role of mirroring and imitation

Poststroke Aphasia Rehabilitation: Why All Talk and No Action?

There is ample agreement in the scientific literature, across diverse areas of study, that suggests that language and movement are interrelated. In particular, it is widely held that the upper limb and hand play a key role in language use. Aphasia, a common, disabling language disorder frequently associated with stroke, requires new restorative methods. A combinatorial hand-arm-language paradigm that capitalizes on shared neural networks may therefore prove beneficial for aphasia recovery in stroke patients and requires further exploration.

Integración auditiva, visual y propioceptiva como sustrato del desarrollo del lenguaje

Introducción. El desarrollo del lenguaje es un proceso complejo considerado como marcador evolutivo del ser humano y puede ser comprendido a partir de la contribución de los sistemas sensoriales y de los eventos que ocurren en periodos críticos del desarrollo.Objetivo. Realizar una revisión de cómo se da la integración de la información auditiva, visual y propioceptiva y cómo se refleja en el desarrollo del lenguaje, destacando el papel de la interacción social como contexto que favorece este proceso.Materiales y métodos. Se utilizaron los términos MeSH “Language Development”; “Visual Perception”; “Hearing”; y “Proprioception en las bases de datos MEDLINE y Embase, limitando la búsqueda principal a artículos escritos en inglés, español y portugués.Resultados. El punto de partida lo constituye la información auditiva, la cual, en el primer año de vida, permite la discriminación de los elementos del ambiente que corresponden al lenguaje; luego un pico en su adquisición y posteriormente una etapa de máxima discriminación lingüística. La información visual proporciona la correspondencia del lenguaje en imágenes, sustrato de nominación y comprensión de palabras, además de la interpretación e imitación del componente emocional en la gesticulación. La información propioceptiva ofrece la retroalimentación de los patrones de ejecución motora empleados en la producción del lenguaje.Conclusión. El estudio del desarrollo lenguaje desde la integración sensorial ofrece nuevas perspectivas para el abordaje e intervención de sus desviaciones.

Limb apraxia and verb processing in Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVE

The present research investigates language and praxis abilities in patients with Alzheimer's disease in order to study the relationship between these two cognitive domains.

METHOD

The experimental evaluation of patients and control group performance was designed to permit a direct comparison of linguistic abilities (i.e., verb and noun naming and sentence comprehension) and praxic abilities (i.e., gesture execution for complex movements). Moreover, for the first time, action comprehension was explored using the Action Sequence Comprehension.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and correlational analyses showed that a direct relationship may exist between language impairment and apraxia in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the production and comprehension of both language and action were equally impaired in patients, providing further evidence for a spectrum of concomitant linguistic and praxis deficits in Alzheimer's disease. Finally, the ability to correctly comprehend action semantics was related more directly to verb production ability than to noun production.

A neuropsychological perspective on the link between language and praxis in modern humans

Hypotheses about the emergence of human cognitive abilities postulate strong evolutionary links between language and praxis, including the possibility that language was originally gestural. The present review considers functional and neuroanatomical links between language and praxis in brain-damaged patients with aphasia and/or apraxia. The neural systems supporting these functions are predominantly located in the left hemisphere. There are many parallels between action and language for recognition, imitation and gestural communication suggesting that they rely partially on large, common networks, differentially recruited depending on the nature of the task. However, this relationship is not unequivocal and the production and understanding of gestural communication are dependent on the context in apraxic patients and remains to be clarified in aphasic patients. The phonological, semantic and syntactic levels of language seem to share some common cognitive resources with the praxic system. In conclusion, neuropsychological observations do not allow support or rejection of the hypothesis that gestural communication may have constituted an evolutionary link between tool use and language. Rather they suggest that the complexity of human behaviour is based on large interconnected networks and on the evolution of specific properties within strategic areas of the left cerebral hemisphere.

Proximal and distal. Rethinking linguistic form and use for clinical purposes

With clinical purposes in mind, a review of the proximal/distal opposition is carried out in order to define a universal parameter of variability in semiotic procedures. By taking into consideration different-although notionally inter-related-senses of the proximal/distal opposition, a cluster of semiotic properties is proposed, which initially permits one to characterize dimensions of variability in the form and use of gestures. The subsequent and central aim of this paper is, however, to demonstrate that the same, or homologous, properties can also serve to characterize variability in the use of language, by assuming a basic connection between gesturing and linguistic behaviour. The main focus of interest and the starting point for reflections are communicative impairments as manifested in apraxia and aphasia.

Syntax and conversation in aphasia. A strategic restrictive use of Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by aphasic speakers

Oral conversational data are deemed to be a relevant empirical source when it comes to formulating and supporting hypotheses about cognitive processes involved in aphasic linguistic production. With this assumption in mind, free conversational uses of the Spanish and Catalan connector QUE by fluent and non-fluent aphasic speakers are examined by contrasting them with normal speakers' (i.e. conversational partners') productions. Strictly ungrammatical uses in aphasic speakers are practically non-existent in free conversation. Nevertheless, this data permits one to characterize the aphasic production of the morpheme QUE as restrictive--to different degrees--with respect to normal production. Moreover, this restriction, selectively affecting the types of syntactic environments examined, can be considered strategic in nature: it is guided by some kind of knowledge about the administration of remnant linguistic resources.