Factors Affecting Maintenance of New Learning in Aphasia

描述(申请人提供)：获得性语言障碍中最常见的症状之一是找词困难或异常。尽管已经开发了许多治疗语言障碍的有希望的疗法，但仍然有一些根本问题没有得到解答。记忆研究很早以前就确定，最近获得的记忆也是最脆弱的。那么，为什么失语症治疗通常一达到预定的表现标准就结束了呢？继续治疗，让这些来之不易的记忆有巩固所需的时间，会不会更有意义？目前还不清楚哪些因素会影响患者长期保持这些疗法的益处。在不知道这一点的情况下，很难确定需要多少疗程才能达到最大的益处。这个项目试图增加关于这些主题的越来越多的文献。我们将研究在达到预先设定的标准后继续治疗是否可以改善治疗的长期维持。这项研究还试图通过功能磁共振成像(FMRI)了解与这些不同水平的训练相关的大脑潜在变化。通过在受试者内部设计中使用多次扫描会话以及通过与对照组进行比较，我们将能够得出关于常用疗法的效果以及在临床实践中正常停止的情况下继续这种疗法的效果的结论。如果持续治疗被证明能使表现改善更持久，我们的fMRI数据将能够向我们展示与更持久的行为改变相关的激活模式。今天，美国有近100万成年人患有失语症。因为失范是它最普遍的症状，所以我们找到更好的方法来补救它，对公共健康至关重要。我们有很多关于不同类型或不同强度治疗相关的解剖学变化的知识，以便将神经成像技术用于我们的最大优势。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the most prevalent symptoms observed in acquired disorders of language is word-finding difficulty or anomia. Though many promising therapies for language disorders have been developed, there are still fundamental questions that remain unanswered. Memory research established long ago that the most recently acquired memories are also the most fragile. Why then, does aphasia therapy usually end as soon as a pre-determined performance criterion has been reached? Might it make better sense to continue therapy, allowing these hard-earned memories the time they need to consolidate? It is still unclear what factors affect a patient's ability to maintain the benefits of these therapies for the long-term. Without knowing this, it is difficult to determine how many sessions of therapy are needed to achieve the maximum benefit. This project seeks to add to a growing literature on these topics. We will examine whether or not the continuation of therapy after a pre-set criterion has been reached could improve the long-term maintenance of the therapy. The study also seeks to understand the underlying changes in the brain associated with these different levels of training using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). By using multiple scanning sessions in a within-subjects design as well as by comparison to a control group, we will be able to draw conclusions about the effects of a commonly-used therapy and about the effects of continuing this therapy beyond where it would normally stop in clinical practice. If continuation of therapy proves to make performance gains longer-lasting, our fMRI data will be able to show us the activation patterns associated with a more permanent change in behavior. Almost 1 million adults live with aphasia in America today. Because anomia is its most prevalent symptom, it is essential to public health that we discover better ways of remediating it. We have much to learn about the anatomical changes associated with different types or levels of intensity of therapy in order to use neuroimaging technology to our greatest advantage.