Treatment of attention and intention in aphasia

越来越多的证据表明，注意力缺陷（定义为 选择一个外部信息源进行进一步处理）， 意图（定义为准备应对，包括选择一种 与其他动作相反）伴随失语症。这些赤字可能会加剧 语言症状，如在某些情况下命名困难，以及语言 当应用注意力/意图操纵时，功能可以改善。 具体来说，当一些患有失语症的病前右利手患者 左半球损伤需要注意其左半球空间中刺激 或者用左手做手势，他们能够更好地制定和/或 理解语言。在这种情况下，似乎很可能注意到刺激， 半脑空间对侧的完整的半球或发起行动与 手对侧的完整的半球，从事完整的注意力，或 意图机制，分别在半球，然后补偿 受损大脑半球的机能失调这样做的目的 子项目是开发和应用失语症治疗，旨在招募 注意力或意图机制，并使它们参与 语言处理治疗将针对命名;患有慢性 命名的困难将被研究。除了评估有效性外， 对于个别患者的治疗，fMRI将用于探索是否 效果是通过将注意力和意图需求转移到 在非优势半球的机制。更广泛的“功能”方面 语言也将被评估。

Growing evidence indicates that deficits in attention (defined as selection of one external source of information for further processing) and intention (defined as preparation to respond, including choosing one course of action as opposed to others) accompany aphasia. These deficits may exacerbate language symptoms such as naming difficulty in some instances, and language functions may improve when attention/intention manipulations are applied. Specifically, when some premorbidly right-handed patients with aphasia after left-hemisphere lesion are required to attend to stimuli in their left hemispace or gesture with their left hands, they are better able to formulate and/or understand language. In such cases, it seems likely that attending to stimuli in hemispace contralateral to the intact hemisphere or initiating an action with the hand contralateral to the intact hemisphere, engages intact attention or intention mechanisms, respectively, in that hemisphere which then compensate for dysfunctional mechanisms in the damaged hemisphere. The purpose of this subproject is to develop and apply aphasia treatments designed to recruit attention or intention mechanisms in the intact hemisphere and to engage them in language processing. Treatments will target naming; patients who have chronic difficulty in naming will be studied. In addition to assessing the effectiveness of treatments for individual patients, fMRI will be used to explore whether the effects are accomplished by shifting attention and intention demands to the mechanisms in the non-dominant hemisphere. Broader "functional" aspects of language will also be assessed.