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Biomedical subjects

G Blanken

Publications and source records attributed to G Blanken.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

The production of nominal compounds in aphasia.

This study reports the difficulties of aphasic patients in producing nominal compounds in German. In a picture naming task with semantically relatively transparent targets it was found that the word frequency of the components determined the accuracy of the patients' performance. A second picture naming task using relatively opaque targets, and a further naming task in which patients were confronted with aurally presented object paraphrases using very opaque targets, are reported. The error patterns of all three tasks give evidence for morpheme-based mis-productions (e.g., componential substitutions), however, in declining proportions with decreasing semantic transparency. Access to final (or basic) components was clearly superior to initial (or determinative) components suggesting position-specific access routines.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Inversion errors in Arabic number reading: is there a nonsemantic route?

This article reports on a mildly aphasic patient with major disorders in reading, writing, and number processing. His predominant error type in reading aloud Arabic numbers and in matching heard numerals with Arabic numbers was the violation of the inversion rule of the German Arabic number reading system. According to this rule most of the two-digit numbers or numbers in the final and prefinal position of longer digit strings have to be read beginning with the final digit (e.g. 26-->sechsundzwanzig (literally translated: six-and-twenty)). It is argued that AT's inversion errors (e.g., 26-->zweiundsechzig (literally translated: two-and-sixty)) are not consistent with the predictions of single route models of Arabic number reading but are in agreement with proposals of a visually based asemantic reading routine in addition to a semantically mediated reading routine.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Formal paraphasias: a single case study.

A case study is reported of an aphasic patient, RB, who showed frequent form-related whole-word substitutions in oral naming, writing to dictation, and reading aloud. In both written language tasks, the abstractness of the targets influenced the number of formal errors. In oral naming, a high proportion of formal paraphasias was related to the intended words in both form and meaning. A comparison between targets and formal paraphasias indicated a high agreement both in word class, number of syllables, stress pattern, and in basic (stressed) vowels. The agreement in consonants (including word-initial consonants), however, was low. It is argued that RB's formal substitutions are not caused solely by errors of lexical selection but that semantic, lexical, and segmental factors contribute to the error outcome.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Dissociations of language functions in aphasics with speech automatisms (recurring utterances).

The linguistic performance of 27 aphasics with frequent production of non-lexical speech automatisms (recurrent utterances; e.g. do-do-do...) in spontaneous speech was investigated. Of the 26 patients examined with the Aachen aphasia test (AAT), 24 cases suffered from global aphasia, one from Broca's aphasia, and one was not classifiable but most resembled the fluent types as Wernicke's or conduction aphasia. While most patients were severely impaired in language comprehension, a subgroup showed impairments on a moderate level. In four cases clear dissociations between oral and written output performance were found. Only one patient, and very rarely so, interspersed his written output with his speech automatism. Analysis of written output within the theoretical framework of the logogen model provided evidence for the possibility of a partially intact phonological system in patients with speech automatisms. Results are interpreted as supporting a sub-phonemic hypothesis of the generation of non-lexical speech automatisms.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Transient versus permanent expression of cancer-related glycopeptides on normal versus leukemic myeloid cells coinciding with marrow egress.

Release of mature cells from the bone marrow (BM) into the peripheral blood (PB) compartment is supposed to be triggered by changes in cell surface constituents, most probably in glycoproteins. The supposed importance of glycoproteins in marrow exit prompted us to investigate glycopeptides, i.e., the carbohydrate part of the cell-surface-located glycoproteins of isolated human bone marrow cells of the myeloid series at different stages of maturation. Fractionation of cells was performed by a four-step procedure, comprised of density gradient centrifugation and velocity sedimentation at unit gravity in specially designed separation chambers. With this method, promyelocytes/myeloblasts, granulocytes from bone marrow, and granulocytes from peripheral blood were isolated in high quantity with purities up to 90%, 90%, and 100%, respectively. Surface glycopeptides of the various myeloid cells were investigated by gel filtration analysis after metabolic labeling with radioactive fucose or after external labeling with periodate-borotritide under mild conditions. Within the normal myeloid maturation sequence, mature granulocytes within the bone marrow were found to transiently express altered surface glycopeptides, which disappeared after release into the peripheral blood. These oligosaccharide structures appeared similar to those encountered on leukemic blast cells, known as "cancer-related glycopeptides." In contrast to normal granulocytes from BM, leukemic blast cells retained these aberrant carbohydrate structures on their surface after marrow release. A possible role for cancer-related glycopeptides in the process of marrow cell exit might be hypothesized.

Acute Disease↗