Attention and Aphasia: Identifying the Role of Binding

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project is designed to assess the role of perceptual binding (combining identity and location information) in language and how attentional constraints may affect this. This includes looking at behavioral processes in stroke and non-stroke individuals on tasks that require binding as well as tasks that do not require binding. Accordingly, the specific aims of the project focus on determining if individuals with aphasia perform less accurately on tasks that require binding versus those that do not. The long-term goal of this project is to provide a better understanding of the role of binding and attention in language, which will lead to further imaging studies of the functional neurocognitive underpinnings for these processes. Together, these behavioral tasks provide complimentary data that should demonstrate a more complete picture of the processes of attention and binding in individuals with aphasia. Experiment 1 is designed to investigate whether the phenomenon of extinction is present for individuals with aphasia and non-brain damaged controls on tasks that require binding. Experiment 2 will use the same stimuli from Experiment 1; however, binding will no longer be required. On these tasks, individuals with aphasia and control participants will be required to count only and will therefore not have to bind together identification and localization. Experiment 3 will control for the amount of resources to be allocated, while still not requiring binding. This will occur by having patients identify and count the items presented, as opposed to localizing. By investigating the role of attention and binding in aphasia, a further understanding of the underlying deficits that may contribute to aphasia may emerge. In addition, such information could impact the field by leading to further development of efficient and efficacious rehabilitation strategies through a better understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of aphasia.