TY - JOUR
T1 - Formulaic Language Resources May Help Overcome Difficulties in Speech-Motor Planning after Stroke
AU - Stahl, Benjamin
AU - Gawron, Bianca
AU - Regenbrecht, Frank
AU - Flöel, Agnes
AU - Kotz, Sonja A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The present study was supported by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (to BS, AF, and SAK; grant number: 2016_A51; www.ekfs.de). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The article processing charge was supported by Open-Access Publication Funds provided by the University of Greifswald and the German Research Foundation (grant number: 393148499).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Stahl et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2020/6/4
Y1 - 2020/6/4
N2 - PURPOSE: Decades of research have explored communication in cerebrovascular diseases by focusing on formulaic expressions (e.g., "Thank you"-"You're welcome"). This category of utterances is known for engaging primarily right-hemisphere frontotemporal and bilateral subcortical neural networks, explaining why left-hemisphere stroke patients with speech-motor planning disorders often produce formulaic expressions comparatively well. The present proof-of-concept study aims to confirm that using verbal cues derived from formulaic expressions can alleviate word-onset difficulties, one major symptom in apraxia of speech.METHODS: In a cross-sectional repeated-measures design, 20 individuals with chronic post-stroke apraxia of speech were asked to produce (i) verbal cues (e.g., /guː/) and (ii) subsequent German target words (e.g., "Tanz") with critical onsets (e.g., /t/). Cues differed, most notably, in aspects of formulaicity (e.g., stereotyped prompt: /guː/, based on formulaic phrase "Guten Morgen"; unstereotyped prompt: /muː/, based on non-formulaic control word "Mutig"). Apart from systematic variation in stereotypy and communicative-pragmatic embeddedness possibly associated with holistic language processing, cues were matched for consonant-vowel structure, syllable-transition frequency, noun-verb classification, meter, and articulatory tempo.RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed significant increases in correctly produced word onsets after verbal cues with distinct features of formulaicity (e.g., stereotyped versus unstereotyped prompts: p < 0.001), as reflected in large effect sizes (Cohen's dz ≤ 2.2).CONCLUSIONS: The current results indicate that using preserved formulaic language skills can relieve word-onset difficulties in apraxia of speech. This finding is consistent with a dynamic interplay of left perilesional and right intact language networks in post-stroke rehabilitation and may inspire new treatment strategies for individuals with apraxia of speech.
AB - PURPOSE: Decades of research have explored communication in cerebrovascular diseases by focusing on formulaic expressions (e.g., "Thank you"-"You're welcome"). This category of utterances is known for engaging primarily right-hemisphere frontotemporal and bilateral subcortical neural networks, explaining why left-hemisphere stroke patients with speech-motor planning disorders often produce formulaic expressions comparatively well. The present proof-of-concept study aims to confirm that using verbal cues derived from formulaic expressions can alleviate word-onset difficulties, one major symptom in apraxia of speech.METHODS: In a cross-sectional repeated-measures design, 20 individuals with chronic post-stroke apraxia of speech were asked to produce (i) verbal cues (e.g., /guː/) and (ii) subsequent German target words (e.g., "Tanz") with critical onsets (e.g., /t/). Cues differed, most notably, in aspects of formulaicity (e.g., stereotyped prompt: /guː/, based on formulaic phrase "Guten Morgen"; unstereotyped prompt: /muː/, based on non-formulaic control word "Mutig"). Apart from systematic variation in stereotypy and communicative-pragmatic embeddedness possibly associated with holistic language processing, cues were matched for consonant-vowel structure, syllable-transition frequency, noun-verb classification, meter, and articulatory tempo.RESULTS: Statistical analyses revealed significant increases in correctly produced word onsets after verbal cues with distinct features of formulaicity (e.g., stereotyped versus unstereotyped prompts: p < 0.001), as reflected in large effect sizes (Cohen's dz ≤ 2.2).CONCLUSIONS: The current results indicate that using preserved formulaic language skills can relieve word-onset difficulties in apraxia of speech. This finding is consistent with a dynamic interplay of left perilesional and right intact language networks in post-stroke rehabilitation and may inspire new treatment strategies for individuals with apraxia of speech.
KW - SYLLABLE FREQUENCY
KW - APRAXIA
KW - RECOVERY
KW - APHASIA
KW - EXPRESSIONS
KW - MECHANISMS
KW - REGRESSION
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0233608
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0233608
M3 - Article
C2 - 32497064
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 15
JO - PLOS ONE
JF - PLOS ONE
IS - 6
M1 - 0233608
ER -