SHORT-TERM MEMORY AND SYNTACTIC DEFICITS IN APHASIA

本研究的目的是确定句法 在布罗卡失语症和传导性失语症中注意到的理解困难 失语症可归因于短期记忆缺陷。 患者 这两种失语症类型将在广泛的任务中进行测试， 评估与句法处理相关的短期记忆方面。 这些任务包括识别与回忆的测试，模态效应， 物品与订单信息的保留，以及记忆的类型 患者能够使用的代码。 然而，即使一个或多个患者 两组失语症患者都表现出短期记忆缺陷， 句法理解缺陷，他们仍然有可能 特别是在句法处理方面遭受了额外的损害 机制等 因此，患者还将接受携带能力测试， 在句法分析中，他们必须保留的单词数量 分析是有系统的。 如果患者能够进行句法分析 分析其内存范围内的字符串，但分解为数字 ”这句话的意思是：“这是一个有力的证据， 句法理解困难源于短期记忆 赤字 另一方面，如果患者在所有测试中都受损， 句法理解独立于要保留的单词的数量， 将意味着语法处理机制的损失。 这项研究的结果将对语言理论产生影响 以及失语症的诊断和治疗 赤字 由于布洛卡综合征患者大脑的不同区域受损 失语症和传导性失语症，这些之间的任何差异 根据短期记忆能力或句法 处理能力将有助于描绘这些不同的功能， 大脑区域。 对患者治疗的影响更为深远 范围 然而，在执行拟议的 研究可以为设计一系列任务迈出第一步 可以有效评估句子理解缺陷是否 因为短期记忆缺失 因为给病人的治疗 会因理解的潜在原因而异 损害，电池的结果将指导补救的类型 提供。

The aim of the proposed research is to determine if the syntactic comprehension dificits noted in both Broca's aphasics and conduction aphasics can be attributed to a short term memory deficit. Patients of both aphasic types will be tested on a wide range of tasks designed to assess aspects of short term memory relevant to syntactic processing. These tasks include tests of recognition versus recall, modality effects, the retention of item verus order information, and the types of memory codes which patients arae able to use. However, even if patients of one or both aphasic group show short term memory deficits plausibly related to syntactic comprehension deficits, it would still be possible that they suffered and additional impairment specifically in syntactic processing mechanisms. Thus, patients will also be tested on their ability to carry out syntactic analyses where the number of words they have to retain for the analysis is varied systematically. If patients can carry out syntactic analyses for strings within their memory span, but break down as the number of words increases, such will constitute strong evidence that their syntactic comprehension difficulties stem from a short term memory deficit. On the other hand, if the patients are impaired on all tests of syntactic comprehension independent of the number of words to be retained, a loss of syntactic processing mechanisms would be implied. The results of this study will have implications for theories of language and the brain as well as for the diagnosis and treatment of aphasic deficits. Since different areas of the brain are damaged in Broca's aphasics and conduction aphasics, any differences noted between these patient types in terms of either short term memory abilities or syntactic processing abilities will help to delineate functions of these different brain regions. The implications for patient treatment are more long range. However, the procedures developed in carrying out the proposed research may provide the first step toward the design of a battery of tasks that could efficiently assess whether a sentence comprehension deficit was due to a short term memory deficit. Since the treatment given a patient would differ depending on the underlying cause of a comprehension impairment, the results of the battery would guide the type of remediation offered.