Biomedical subjects

Leigh Morrow

Publications and source records attributed to Leigh Morrow.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Functional communication and executive function in aphasia.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relationship between functional communication and executive function ability in aphasia. Twenty-five participants with aphasia underwent examination with an extensive test battery including measures of functional communication, executive function ability, and language impairment. Compared to published norms, most participants did not perform within normal limits on the executive function tests. As expected, the correlation between severity of language impairment and functional communication ratings exceeded that among the executive functioning and functional communication measures. Eight of ten correlation coefficients for the relationship between executive functioning and functional communication reached statistical significance suggesting a clear relationship between scores on the executive functioning measures and functional communication ability. Based on these results, it appears that decreased executive functioning ability may coincide with decreased functional communication ability in persons with aphasia.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Spaced retrieval treatment of anomia.

BACKGROUND: Spaced Retrieval (SR) is a treatment approach developed to facilitate recall of information by individuals with dementia. Essentially an errorless learning procedure that can be used to facilitate recall of a variety of information, SR gradually increases the interval between correct recall of target items. AIMS: Given the success of using SR in dementia, the purpose of this study was to explore its usefulness in improving naming by individuals with aphasia. The rate of acquisition and retention of items was compared between SR and a more traditional treatment technique-cueing hierarchy (CH). Also, each oral naming treatment was run concurrently with a single word writing treatment. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Three participants who had moderate or severe naming impairments and agraphia were studied. Single-subject design was applied across oral and written naming and treated and untreated items. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: The results indicate that for these participants, SR resulted in improved naming of specific items. The data further suggest that SR compared favourably to CH with regard to both acquisition and retention of items. The participants also benefited nicely from the writing treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest SR may be an alternative for managing naming impairment resulting from aphasia. Furthermore, the study supports providing treatments aimed at two different modalities concurrently.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Cortical activation and language task difficulty in aphasia.

BACKGROUND: Previous research using functional MRI (fMRI) suggests changes in cortical activation as a function of increased task difficulty. This relationship has not been explored in persons with aphasia even though it may have significant implications for pre- and post-treatment interpretation of fMRI data. AIMS: The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the relationship between changes in language task difficulty and cortical activation in persons with aphasia. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Four persons with chronic anomic or Broca's aphasia and four matched control participants underwent fMRI while performing a picture-word matching task. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: Compared to the more difficult task condition, all participants performed with greater accuracy on the easier condition. Moreover, greater mean blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) signal intensity and area recruitment were noted during the more difficult condition for three out of four persons with aphasia as well as three of the four controls. The increase in cortical activity was mainly noted in the superior temporal and posterior inferior frontal lobes. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings mirror those found in previous studies of normal subjects in that cortical activation increased in parallel to task difficulty for most of our participants. It is unclear what mechanism accounts for this effect; this phenomenon might need to be considered in future fMRI studies of neural plasticity associated with aphasia treatment.

Journal Article↗