Biomedical subjects

N Helm-Estabrooks

Publications and source records attributed to N Helm-Estabrooks.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1984

A discussion of apraxia, aphasia, and gestural language.

It is understood that damage to the left cerebral hemisphere in adulthood may result in syndromes of language disturbances called the aphasias. The study of these syndromes sheds light on normal language processes, the relationship between language behavior and the brain, and how best to treat aphasic individuals. Aphasia, for some, is a central communication disorder affecting all symbolic behavior in all modalities (i.e., speech, writing, and gesture). Difficulty producing symbolic gestures on command is called apraxia. Others view aphasia as a manifestation of a motor-sequencing disorder affecting all gestural systems including those required for speech movements. These divergent theories of the underlying nature of aphasia can be tested through examination of deaf individuals who use sign language before onset of aphasia. Poizner et al. [Am. J. Physiol. 246 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 15): R868-R883, 1984] studied three such patients with different aphasia syndromes: one patient had a nonsymbolic, motor-sequencing disorder; one had a gestural apraxia; and one had neither. These findings force the conclusion that neither the symbolic nor motor-sequencing theory of aphasia can account for the many varieties of that disorder.

Aphasia↗

PubMed1982

Aphasia with predominantly subcortical lesion sites: description of three capsular/putaminal aphasia syndromes.

Nine cases of subcortical aphasia with capsular/putaminal (C/P) lesion sites demonstrated on computed tomographic (CT) scans were studied. Eight cases were occlusive-vascular in etiology and one was hemorrhagic. Three subcortical aphasia syndromes and three C/P lesion site patterns were observed. Patients with C/P lesion sites with anterior-superior white-matter lesion extension had good comprehension, grammatical, but slow, dysarthric speech, and lasting right hemiplegia. Patients with C/P lesion sites with posterior white-matter lesion extension across the auditory radiations in the temporal isthmus had poor comprehension, fluent Wernicke-type speech, and lasting right hemiplegia. Patients with C/P lesion sites with both anterior-superior and posterior extension were globally aphasic and had lasting right hemiplegia. Although these cases of C/P subcortical aphasia shared certain well-known features of Broca's and Wernicke's cortical aphasia syndromes, they did not completely resemble cases of either Broca's, Wernicke's, global, or thalamic aphasia in neurologic findings, CT scan lesion sites, or language behavior. Further study of the subcortical aphasias associated with these C/P lesion sites seems to be warranted.

Adult↗

PubMed1982

Visual action therapy for global aphasia.

Eight globally aphasic patients who had not responded to traditional treatment received Visual Action Therapy (VAT), a nonvocal approach which ultimately trains patients to produce symbolic gestures for visually absent stimuli. Statistical analyses of pre and post VAT scores earned on the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA) showed highly significant improvement on those subtests which measure pantomimic and auditory comprehension skills. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1981

Response of an agrammatic patient to a syntax stimulation program for aphasia.

A Syntax Stimulation Program (SSP) based on the findings of neurolinguistic studies of agrammatic aphasic patients was used to treat one patient with a three year history of severe agrammatism. The SSP is designed to elicit eight different sentence constructions at two levels of difficulty using a story completion technique. The patient received pre-, mid- and post-treatment testing with the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST) and the cookie theft picture description of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). With 10 1/2 weeks of treatment, the patient's NSST expressive scores improved from 0 to 21, and his BDAE picture description showed increased phrase length and use of grammatical constructions. In addition, with this special treatment, the patient was able to produce grammatical speech in spontaneous conversation. Thus, the SSP appears to have therapeutic merit in training syntactic skills in presumably stable agrammatic patients.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Perseveration. Part I: a review.

Perseveration refers to the inappropriate continuation or repetition of a response or activity. It is associated with a variety of neurological disorders and, when pronounced, is thought to be pathognomonic of brain damage. Perseveration manifests itself in several different forms which have had various labels applied, and many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the mechanisms underlying these perseverative behaviours. In this article we review descriptions and classifications of perseveration as it occurs in various neurological disorders, and then discuss some of the neurobehavioural and neuropathological mechanisms thought to account for it.

Attention↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Perseveration. Part II: A study of perseveration in closed-head injury.

This study examines the nature and extent of perseveration in 15 individuals with closed-head injury (CHI) by (a) identifying and describing the types of perseveration that occurred on verbal and non-verbal tasks, (b) examining the possible underlying neuropsychological mechanisms of perseverative behaviour and (c) exploring neuroanatomical correlates of perseveration. Performance of the 15 CHI patients was compared with 15 neurologically normal subjects matched for sex, age, handedness and educational level. The CHI subjects produced significantly more perseverations than did normals, and 'recurrent' perseveration was the most frequently occurring type. A test of verbal learning elicited the greatest number of recurrent perseverations. Overall test performance of the CHI group suggested that memory dysfunction and impaired attention were most likely responsible for perseverative errors. CT scan analyses showed that the three most perseverative CHI subjects evidenced left temporal lobe damage.

Adolescent↗