Our study is dedicated to the investigation of the relationship between language and memory. In order to explore this connection and determine its specificity we compared cognitive processes in people with aphasia with healthy adults. We assume that an impairment of one element will impact the state of the other one if there is a connection between these processes. Moreover, numerous inquiries showed that linguistic deficits in aphasia cooccur with the following nonlinguistic deficits: short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) deficits.
Control group: n = 15, mean age 51.5 years, 5 males, 10 females Experimental group: n = 18, mean age 56.7 years, 12 males, 7 females All native Russian speakers were recruited.
healthy adults
The main purpose of our research was to investigate the differential role of STM and WM in language processes by examining patients with fluent and nonfluent aphasia.
nonfluent aphasia
fluent aphasia
Short-term memory tasks
Working memory tasks
Language abilities tasks
• Word span task: 10 words • Forward digit span task: series of digits ranging in length from 3 to 9 • Nonsense syllables: series of nonsense syllables ranging in length from 2 to 6
• Backward digit span task: series of digits ranging in length from 3 to 9
• Quantitative Assessment of Speech in Aphasia (QASA)
• Modified listening span task (MLS)
MLS is the modified version of the Complex span task of Daneman and Carpenter (Ivanova, Hallowell, 2011). In this task participants have to listen to sentences and words, find the pictures depicting the given sentences and memorize the words. The number of “sentence-word” pairs increases from 2 to 6 items in a set. Recruits are given three tries for each set. A woman is kissing a man
Blouse
A boy is finding a woman
Zebra
A girl is pulling a boy
Glass
[recognition display]
unlimited time
blank screen 200 ms
unlimited time
blank screen 200 ms
unlimited time
blank screen 200 ms
unlimited time
Word span task
Nonsense syllables
Forward digit span task
proportion
digits
digits
proportion
words
Our results showed that performance on STM and WM tasks was significantly lower in patients with aphasia compared to healthy adults
Backward digit span task
Healthy controls Patients with aphasia MLS
An exploratory correlation analysis showed that patients with fluent and nonfluent aphasia have different relations between language abilities, WM and STM QASA and MLS: • Total score of language understanding (0.714; p < .05) • Total score of expressive speech (0.832; p < .01) • Total score of language abilities (0.731; p < .05) • Understanding of objects (0.846; p < .01) • Understanding of actions (0.720; p < .05)
• QUASA and Word Span Task • Understanding of actions (0.831; p < .05)
• • • •
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QASA и Backward digit span task: • Understanding of instructions (0.973; p < .01)
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This study demonstrated that aphasia co-occurs with the following nonlinguistic deficits: STM and WM deficits. Exploratory correlation analysis revealed that patients with fluent and nonfluent aphasia have different memory-impairments. A larger number of significant correlations between WM and language in the nonfluent aphasia patients group may indicate that WM is closely related to the executive control function. WM deficits in patients with nonfluent aphasia are primarily attributed to deficits in the executive control function connected with lesions of the anterior regions of the brain. STM deficits in patients with fluent aphasia are related to impairments of knowledge of lexical-semantic representations. Kuzmina E. Ekaterina (Moscow) - Moscow State University, Faculty of Psychology Ivanova V. Maria (Moscow) - Center of Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation Kuptsova V. Svetlana (Moscow) - Center of Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation Ulicheva S. Anastasia (Hong Kong) - Moscow State University, Faculty of Philology
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