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[Language tests in electroglottography].

An Electroglottograph (Fourcin Laryngograph Processor) was used to determine, whether there was a significant difference in degree of Irregularity in vocal fold vibration (% Irregularity) or Contact Quotient (Qx) in the vocal fold vibratory cycle (Lx) between different phonatory tasks and between men and women. The most recent software package, 'Speech Studio', was used to analyse the data. The subjects were 24 healthy subjects, 16 females and 8 males, aged from 22 to 71. The tasks consisted of sustained vowels: a, o, u, short words: Ala, Ola, Ula and a short phrase in Polish, spoken at comfortable pitch and volume. The average age of females and males did not differ significantly on t-testing. The results showed there were no statistically significant differences between mean values of Qx between phonatory tasks on ANOVA testing. However, the differences between mean values of % Irregularity were significantly different between tasks. The % Irregularity obtained for the phrase, was significantly different from the values obtained for the sustained vowels and single words. The values for the latter two did not differ significantly. The difference between male and female Qx and % Irregularity values were not significant on t-testing except for % Irregularity for the word 'Ola', which was greater in men. Our findings show that for calculation of Qx either sustained vowel phonation, single words or phrases may be used. % Irregularity of vocal fold vibration is however task dependent.

Adult↗

Performance of American Indian children with fetal alcohol syndrome on the test of language development.

Alcohol is a teratogen known to have deleterious effects on the developing embryo and fetus. Language deficits secondary to central nervous system dysfunction are among the sequelae of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Limited information is available regarding the language deficits associated with FAS, particularly among the population of American Indians in whom FAS is highly prevalent. The TOLD-P and TOLD-I were administered to 27 American Indian children: 10 with FAS and 17 normally developing control subjects. Pure-tone screening, immittance measurement, and vision screening preceded language testing. The older FAS children presented syntactic deficits while the younger FAS subjects presented more global language deficits.

Child↗

[Word recognition and confrontation naming in early diagnosis of dementia].

Since early identification of dementia is very important, a simple inexpensive examination for its diagnosis is needed. A naming and recognition test was formulated for: examining factors affecting naming performance, comparing naming and recognition performance, and sampling spontaneous speech. The results were compared with those of the mini-mental test. Subjects were 7 men and 14 women (mean age 80 +/- 4.7) in the early stages of dementia, living in a senior citizen's home. The short mini-mental test differentiated between the groups, as did the newly formulated test. Language tests were shown to be of value in the accurate detection of dementia in its early stages.

Aged↗

[Value of the Heidelberg Language Development Test in diagnosis of children with language development disorders].

Diagnosis of developmental speech and language disorders in accordance with the ICD-10 is to be based on the psychometric assessment of speech and language performance. In the present study the clinical validity of the Heidelberger Sprachentwicklungstest (HSET) for diagnosing expressive language disorders was assessed by comparing HSET subtest results for 92 children aged 4 to 10 years who had various speech and language disorders with the children's scores on another language test, a cognitive test and clinical findings. The HSET scores differed considerably from the clinical ratings of the severity of the language disturbance. The correlations between the HSET scores and the score on the other language test was also low. Although the correlations of the HSET scores with the performance IQ was low, the correlations with the verbal IQ were high. The implications of these findings for the use of the HSET in diagnosing children with language impairments are discussed.

Child↗

Usefulness of language and memory testing during intracarotid amobarbital testing: observations from an fMRI study.

BACKGROUND: Several procedures for testing language lateralization and memory function exist during the intracarotid amobarbital test (IAT). The use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) gives the opportunity to assess the validity of some of these procedures, or at least to inspect the neuronal correlates. A comprehensive fMRI protocol was tested, aimed at addressing aspects of lateralization of language, as well as testing memory in relation to activation of mesiotemporal regions. Here we report observations with possible consequences for the current IAT procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The protocol consisted of three language tasks (overt naming, semantic decision and silent word generation) and two memory tasks (encoding and retrieving visual scenes). The paradigms used a block-related procedure in nine right-handed normal volunteers. During the procedure dynamic weighted full brain images were acquired which are sensitive to the blood oxygenation activation effect. RESULTS: Encoding showed symmetrical bilateral activation in the mesiotemporal regions, specifically the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. With a retrieval task activation of the mesiotemporal areas was restricted to the posterior hippocampal area. Overt object naming showed results, similar to encoding tasks with bilateral activation of hippocampal areas. Silent word generation showed much stronger ability to lateralize than the other two language-related tasks and especially object naming. CONCLUSION: Activation revealed by fMRI activation shows that IAT procedures, using active semantic language processing or comprehensive procedures with multiple language tasks have the highest guarantee for individual activation lateralization. Simple object naming does not guarantee a lateralized language fMRI activation pattern. Of the different memory procedures during IAT, the procedures (Interview and the Montreal) demanding encoding processing will be related to larger areas of bilateral hippocampal activation than procedures (Seattle) exclusively requiring retrieval. Moreover, tasks using recognition of previously presented language items (naming objects) are equally effective for assessing hippocampal activation compared with presenting separate memory items.

Adult↗

Category fluency in first-episode schizophrenia.

Animal word list generation (ANWLG) was administered to 47 first-episode schizophrenia (FES) participants and 31 controls. Fifty-nine left temporal lobe epilepsy (LTLE) participants were included as a comparison group with known temporal lobe damage and expected semantic deficits. Semantic knowledge was assessed with the Association Index (AI), a measure of the semantic relatedness of all consecutive ANWLG responses. Neuropsychological tests of language and executive functioning were also administered. Results showed that both FES and LTLE groups generated fewer ANWLG responses than controls, but only the LTLE participants obtained a lower AI relative to controls. FES participants did not differ from controls on the AI. FES and LTLE groups produced fewer semantic subcategories (clusters), however, only the LTLE group produced fewer words per subcategory compared to controls (cluster size). FES participants produced a higher rate of perseverative responses compared to the other groups. Finally, correlation analyses showed that for FES participants both executive and language tests significantly correlated with ANWLG total responses, while the correlation between ANWLG and only 1 language test was significant for LTLE participants. Taken together, the results suggest that reduced ANWLG output in FES participants may be best conceptualized as a deficit in the executive component of word list generation (i.e., semantic search/access, response monitoring) or global cognitive impairment.

Adolescent↗

[Study of hemispheric lateralization of language regions by functional MRI. Validation with the Wada test].

Language hemispheric dominance can be assessed by the Wada test before temporal lobectomy, in patients with refractory epilepsy of the mesial temporal lobe. Functional MR is a less invasive technique which recently demonstrated the ability to localize some language areas. The aim of this study was to determine if functional MR can be substituted to the Wada test in the determination of language dominance. Seven patients with a refractory epilepsy of the mesial temporal lobe were included. The MR protocol was carried out using a 1.5 T system including 12 axial gradient echo BOLD EPI images. A semantic fluency task, interspersed with rest periods, was used as activation paradigm. An activation of middle and inferior frontal region was found in all patients. It predominated in the left hemisphere in 6 cases and in the right hemisphere in 1 case. The hemispheric and frontal lobe lateralization of the functional MR activation was correlated with the hemispheric language dominance as assessed by the Wada test. In conclusion, functional MR is a promising technique in the determination of language dominance.

Adolescent↗

The predictive validity and accuracy of a screening test for language delay and auditory perceptual disorder.

Infants (321) who had been screened for language delay and auditory perceptual problems at 9 months of age were evaluated 1 year later. Of these infants 88.6% were correctly classified as at-risk or not-at-risk of delayed linguistic development. The correlation between performance on the screen and on a language scale was 0.49. The great majority of those with receptive and expressive delay continued to show problems at 2 years of age, whereas half of those with expressive delay alone were within normal limits. No evidence was found that a history of fluctuating hearing loss contributed to the development of either language delay or auditory perceptual problems.

Auditory Perceptual Disorders↗

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: language deficits in children post-treatment.

The language abilities of a group of 22 children (aged between 5 years and 17 years, 9 months) treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were investigated and compared with those of a group of non-neurologically impaired, age- and sex-matched controls. The language test battery included an age-appropriate measure from the Test of Language Development (TOLD) series, consisting of either the Test of Adolescent Language (TOAL--2), or the Test of Language Development--Intermediate or --Primary (TOLD--I or --P); the timed subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Function (CELF); the Boston Naming Test; and one of either the Token Test or the Token Test for Children, depending on the age of the subject. As a group, the leukaemia subjects performed significantly worse than the controls on the TOAL--2, TOLD--I, TOLD--P, Token Test, and Boston Naming Test. The need for post-treatment monitoring of the language abilities of children treated for ALL to enable early remediation of areas of deficit is highlighted.

Adolescent↗

[Polish language dychotomic tests for speech audiometry Part 2: A study of people with normal hearing from various age groups].

INTRODUCTION: Evaluation of the objective results in the clinical examination of central auditory disorders requires the use of reliable language tests which provide the means for the estimation of patients' audio-verbal communicative skills. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors present a new set of more difficult language tests in Polish, including a filtered speech test, numeral and verbal dichotic tests and the normal Calearo test. The tests were evaluated on a group of people with good hearing from various age groups. CONCLUSIONS: The presented tests are the only existing ones created for the Polish language which expand the diagnostic possibilities in the case of central auditory processing disorders. It was found that there is a right ear predominance in dichotic tests, which grows together with the patient's age. This observation can be very beneficial in practice, allowing for hearing aids to be better fitted.

Adult↗