Abstract
While previous studies have found that white matter damage relates to impairment severity in individuals with aphasia, further study is required to understand the relationship between white matter integrity and treatment response. In this study, 34 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia underwent behavioral testing and structural magnetic resonance imaging at two timepoints. Thirty participants within this sample completed typicality-based semantic feature treatment for anomia. Tractography of bi-hemispheric white matter tracts was completed via Automated Fiber Quantification. Associations between microstructural integrity metrics and behavioral measures were evaluated at the tract level and in nodes along the tract. Diffusion measures of the left inferior longitudinal, superior longitudinal, and arcuate fasciculi were related to aphasia severity and diffusion measures of the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus were related to naming and treatment response. This study also found preliminary evidence of left inferior longitudinal fasciculus microstructural changes following treatment.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 105163 |
Journal | Brain and Language |
Volume | 232 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2022 |
Funding
This work was supported by NIH/NIDCD P50DC012283 and NIH/NIDCD T32DC013017. The authors acknowledge our research participants who generously gave their time and energy during evaluation and treatment for this study. The authors also acknowledge the members of the Aphasia Research Laboratory at Boston University for many helpful discussions and Jeffrey Johnson and Natalie Gilmore for data collection.
Keywords
- Aphasia
- Automated fiber quantification
- Diffusion tensor imaging
- Language
- Rehabilitation
- Stroke
- Tractography
- White matter
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Speech and Hearing
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language