[Non-aphasic misnaming: a case report and literature review].

A 71-year-old, right-handed woman was admitted to our hospital due to a sudden difficulty with conversation. On admission, she was alert, but had a euphoric mood, disorientation, and a disturbance of recent memory. Her speech was fluent. Her repetition and auditory word cognition were excellent, but she had a slight difficulty with naming visual objects. She frequently showed word-finding difficulty and irrelevant paraphasia during free conversation and a word fluency task. Her irrelevant paraphasia was observed more frequently when she was asked to explain her outbreak of anger at the hospital, i.e., it was situation-dependent. She also had anosognosia. MRI showed an infarct in the territory of the left tuberothalamic artery. Single-photon emission computed tomography revealed low-uptake lesions in the left thalamus and orbital frontal, medial frontal, and medial temporal lobes. The patient was diagnosed with non-aphasic misnaming. The clinical characteristics of patients with non-aphasic misnaming in the literature were reviewed. All of the patients with non-aphasic misnaming had word-finding difficulty and irrelevant paraphasia. Additionally, they had either emotional disturbance or anosognosia.

Sketch and Speak: An Expository Intervention Using Note-Taking and Oral Practice for Children With Language-Related Learning Disabilities.

Purpose This preliminary study investigated an intervention procedure employing 2 types of note-taking and oral practice to improve expository reporting skills. Procedure Forty-four 4th to 6th graders with language-related learning disabilities from 9 schools were assigned to treatment or control conditions that were balanced for grade, oral language, and other features. The treatment condition received 6 30-min individual or pair sessions from the school of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Treatment involved reducing statements from grade-level science articles into concise ideas, recording the ideas as pictographic and conventional notes, and expanding from the notes into full oral sentences that are then combined into oral reports. Participants were pretested and posttested on taking notes from grade-level history articles and using the notes to give oral reports. Posttesting also included written reports 1 to 3 days following the oral reports. Results The treatment group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group on multiple quality features of the notes and oral reports. Quantity, holistic oral quality, and delayed written reports were not significantly better. The SLPs reported high levels of student engagement and learning of skills and content within treatment. They attributed the perceived benefits to the elements of simplicity, visuals, oral practice, repeated opportunities, and visible progress. Conclusion This study indicates potential for Sketch and Speak to improve student performance in expository reporting and gives direction for strengthening and further investigating this novel SLP treatment. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.7268651.

Health-Related Quality of Life for Children and Adolescents with Specific Language Impairment: A Cohort Study by a Learning Disabilities Reference Center.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of children with specific language impairment (SLI). STUDY DESIGN: In a prospective sample at a Learning Disabilities Reference Center, proxy-rated HRQOL (KIDSCREEN-27) was assessed for children with SLI and unaffected children from January 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. Quality of life predictors for children with SLI were evaluated by recording the length and number of speech therapy and psychotherapy sessions and the specific school organization that the children had participated in. The KIDSCREEN scores of the two groups were compared using nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: The questionnaires were completed by the parents of 67 children with SLI and 67 unaffected children. For children with SLI, the mean HRQOL scores were significantly lower for physical and psychological well-being, autonomy and parent relation, social support, and school environment compared to the reference group, controlling for age and parental education (ß = -6.7 (-12.7;-.7) P = 0.03, ß = -4.9 (-9.5;-.3) P = 0.04, ß = -8.4 (-14.2;-2.6) P = 0.005, ß = -11.6 (-19.5;-3.7) P = 0.004, ß = -7.1(-12.4;-1.7) P = 0.010, respectively). Multivariate analyses in the group of children with SLI found that children who had undergone psychotherapy sessions or who had been enrolled in specific schooling programs had reduced HRQOL scores in social support and school environment and that children who were in a special class had higher scores in physical well-being. CONCLUSION: Children with SLI had significantly lower HRQOL scores as compared to unaffected children. Measurement of HRQOL could serve as one of the strategies employed throughout the follow-up of these individuals to provide them with the most appropriate and comprehensive care possible.

Impaired neural discrimination of emotional speech prosody in children with autism spectrum disorder and language impairment.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficient social and communication skills, including difficulties in perceiving speech prosody. The present study addressed processing of emotional prosodic changes (sad, scornful and commanding) in natural word stimuli in typically developed school-aged children and in children with ASD and language impairment. We found that the responses to a repetitive word were diminished in amplitude in the children with ASD, reflecting impaired speech encoding. Furthermore, the amplitude of the MMN/LDN component, reflecting cortical discrimination of sound changes, was diminished in the children with ASD for the scornful deviant. In addition, the amplitude of the P3a, reflecting involuntary orienting to attention-catching changes, was diminished in the children with ASD for the scornful deviant and tended to be smaller for the sad deviant. These results suggest that prosody processing in ASD is impaired at various levels of neural processing, including deficient pre-attentive discrimination and involuntary orientation to speech prosody.

Test de emparejamiento semántico de imágenes: instrucciones y pautas para el análisis de su ejecución / Semantic picture association test: instructions and procedures for execution assessment

Objetivo: Explorar en pacientes afásicos, previo a la exploración neurolingüística, la capacidad de extraer información semántica de las imágenes visuales.Desarrollo: El diseño y construcción de los ítems del test y de las pautas para el análisis de la ejecución, se realizó tomando como referente teórico, a la hipótesis del contenido unitario organizado, considerada como la que mejor explica las disociaciones semánticas observadas en pacientes con daño cerebral. Según esta hipótesis, el conocimiento en el sistema semántico se organiza a partir de la naturaleza biológica o no biológica de los elementos de la realidad. Plantea que tanto las propiedades de los elementos biológicos, como las de los no biológicos, están fuertemente correlacionadas, siendo compartidos muchos atributos entre miembros de las categorías supraordinadas. El test implica decidir si los conceptos a los que pertenecen dos imágenes que se presentan juntas,forman parte o no, de la misma categoría semántica. Está conformado por 42 elementos, 2 como ejemplos y 40 como ítems. En 20 ítems ambas imágenes pertenecen a la misma categoría semántica, y en los otros 20 ítems, las imágenes pertenecen a categorías semánticas diferentes. Para el análisis de la ejecución del paciente, se deben considerar dos cuestiones. Primero, los supuestos de los que parte la hipótesis del contenido unitario organizado, que ha sido tomada como referente para la construcción del test (la información en el sistema semántico se organiza a partir de su naturaleza biológica o no biológica). En segundo lugar, se debe tener en cuenta que este análisis es puramentecualitativo. Se puntúa la ejecución solo para facilitar su análisis, pero este se realiza teniendo en cuanta las categorías a las que pertenecen los ítems donde falla, sin precisar una puntuación global en el test(AU)

Objective: To evaluate in aphasic patients, the capacity to extract semantic information of visual images, before neurolinguistics assessment.Development: The development and construction of the items and procedures for assessment the execution of patients in the test, was taking the organized unitary content hypothesis as theorical referent. This hypothesis is considerate the best explanation about the semantic dissociation observed in patients with brain injury. The organized unitary content hypothesis approach, that knowledge is organized in the semantic system, by means of the biological or not biological nature of elements in the reality; and the correlation of properties of biologicaland not biological elements are strongest: the members of superior categories shared much attributes withmembers of subordinate categories. The task of the test implies to decide if the concepts of two images that are presented together, belong or not, to the same semantic category. In his structure, the task is formed by 42 elements: 2 as examples and 40 as items. In 20 items, both images belong to the same semantic category. In the others 20 items, the images belong to different semantics categories. The analysis of patient´s test execution needs the consideration of two topics. First, all supposes of the organized unitary content hypothesis that are taken as referent for the test development and construction (knowledge is organized in the semantic system by means of the biological or not biological nature of elements in the reality). Second, this analysis is purely qualitative. The punctuation of the patients execution is for facilitate the assessment. The analysis requires to considerate only the semantic categories of the images. Is not necessary a global percentile in the test(AU)

Representation of action in Parkinson's disease: imagining, observing, and naming actions.

People with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit slowed movements and difficulty in initiating movements. This review addresses the issue of whether or not cognitive representations of actions in PD are affected, alongside these motor problems. In healthy people, the motor system can be involved in tasks such as observing a graspable object or another person's action, or imagining and naming actions, in the absence of overt movement. As described in this review, the fact that the slowed real movements exhibited by PD patients are coupled with slower motor imagery and verb processing provides additional evidence for the involvement of the motor system in these processes. On the other hand, PD patients can still engage in motor imagery and action observation to some extent, which is encouraging for the use of these processes in rehabilitation. Findings across the different domains of action-representation reveal several important factors. First, the nature of action is critical: patients' performance in observation and naming tasks is influenced by whether or not the action is in their repertoire and by the extent of motion required to execute the action. Second, people with PD may use alternative or compensatory mechanisms to represent actions, such as relying more on a third-person perspective or a visual strategy. Third, people with PD show a lack of specificity, responding as strongly to stimuli related and unrelated to actions. Investigating action-representation in PD has implications for our understanding of both the symptoms of PD and the cognitive representation of actions in the healthy system.

5-HT2 receptor distribution shown by [18F] setoperone PET in high-functioning autistic adults.

The serotonergic system is implicated in disordered emotional behavior. Autism is characterized by impaired processing of emotional information. The serotonergic (5-HT) system is also critically involved in brain development, and abnormal brain synthesis of serotonin is observed in autism. Furthermore, whole blood and platelet serotonin have been reported to be elevated in autism. The authors examined the CNS serotonin system in autism in vivo. 5-HT2 receptors were visualized by PET imaging of [18F]setoperone-binding in this pilot study of 6 high-functioning autistic adults and 10 matched-control participants. Autism subjects had less thalamic [18F]setoperone binding than controls, when covaried for age, but no difference reached significance in other areas. A negative relationship between thalamic binding and history of language impairment was also observed. Further studies will be needed to gain a clearer picture of the role of the 5-HT system in autism.

Auditory magnetic mismatch field latency: a biomarker for language impairment in autism.

BACKGROUND: Auditory processing abnormalities are frequently observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and these abnormalities may have sequelae in terms of clinical language impairment (LI). The present study assessed associations between language impairment and the amplitude and latency of the superior temporal gyrus magnetic mismatch field (MMF) in response to changes in an auditory stream of tones or vowels. METHODS: Fifty-one children with ASD, and 27 neurotypical control subjects, all aged 6 to 15 years, underwent neuropsychological evaluation, including tests of language function, as well as magnetoencephalographic recording during presentation of tones and vowels. The MMF was identified in the difference waveform obtained from subtraction of responses to standard from deviant stimuli. RESULTS: Magnetic mismatch field latency was significantly prolonged (p < .001) in children with ASD, compared with neurotypical control subjects. Furthermore, this delay was most pronounced (∼50 msec) in children with concomitant LI, with significant differences in latency between children with ASD with LI and those without (p < .01). Receiver operator characteristic analysis indicated a sensitivity of 82.4% and specificity of 71.2% for diagnosing LI based on MMF latency. CONCLUSIONS: Neural correlates of auditory change detection (the MMF) are significantly delayed in children with ASD, and especially those with concomitant LI, suggesting a neurobiological basis as well as a clinical biomarker for LI in ASD.

Late subjective audiometric verifications of the early auditory brainstem responses results in young hard-of-hearing children before their speech development.

The authors described the late subjective audiometric verifications of the auditory brainstem responses (ABR) results in a group of hard-of-hearing children treated in Phoniatric Department of Children Hospital Dziekanów Lesny. The audiometric examinations took place after some time of the speech and hearing rehabilitation. The rehabilitation effects make the audiometric examinations feasible. The correlation between these two type of examinations was good.

Disturbances in conceptual space involving language and speech.

We report on a patient, with a CT-verified low density lesion in the right parietal area, who exhibited not only deficits in left conceptual space, but also in reading, writing, and the production of speech. He presented with a left homonymous hemianopia, tactile inattention, and dysphasia that quickly resolved, leaving a left-sided inattention and less marked dysphasia. Several language tasks and language-based imagery tasks revealed poor language processing of the left portion of words which could be remedied if the patient was instructed to do things like spell the word backwards. The overall results were consistent with the idea that some aspects of language processing involve spatial mechanisms.