Investigating the Neural Basis of Post-Stroke Aphasia Therapy; a Systematic Review of Neuroscience-Based Therapy Studies
Aphasiology
Heath, C., Conroy, P., et al. (2023).
Aphasiology, 37(9), 1508-1532.
This systematic review investigates the effects of aphasia therapy on language outcomes and brain structure and function for adults with post-stroke aphasia in the subacute or chronic stage.
Not stated
From 1997 to January 2020
Published studies of any design
23
<div>Aphasia therapies were associated with diverse and inconsistent changes in brain structure and activation in individuals with subacute to chronic stroke-associated aphasia. These brain changes corresponded to improved language outcomes. The following findings were reported regarding the linguistic impact of various treatment techniques:</div>
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<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Semantic and phonological treatments</strong> (e.g., Semantic Feature Analysis, Phonological Components Analysis, computer-assisted anomia therapy, intensive therapy using semantic and phonological hierarchies) were associated with improved naming, particularly for trained items. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Pantomime cueing</strong> (i.e., the use of visual gesture to elicit verbal responses) was associated with improved language production. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Melodic Intonation Therapy </strong>(MIT) was associated with improvements in language production, meaningful word count, and speech fluency, as measured by correct information units. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Audio-visual therapy </strong>(i.e., therapy emphasizing direct observation of mouth movements listening to a speaker) was associated with word variety and range of words. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Intention therapy </strong>(i.e., a treatment involving pairing hand movements to verbal output) was associated with improved language measures in most patients, particularly those who were less severe. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Treatment of Underlying Forms </strong>(i.e., a syntax-focused treatment of sentence-level deficits) was associated with improved production of trained items, with most participants generalizing to less complex, untreated sentence structures. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333;"><strong>Imitation-based therapy</strong> (i.e., visual imitation of speech actions) was associated with increased production of correct information units.</span></li>
</ul>
