Special Issues of Aphasiology – serie

Research in language processing and language impairment has focused extensively on elements of linguistic representation that are accessed and retrieved in comprehension, repetition and production of words and sentences. These studies have provided important information about the effects of characteristics of words (e.g., frequency, imageability) and sentences (e.g., syntactic and semantic argument structure) on language processing. A smaller but nonetheless rapidly growing body of research has been directed to understanding those cognitive processes that mediate access, maintenance and retrieval of those representations. The papers in this book focus on theoretical accounts of the role of short-term memory and working memory in language processing as well as clinical applications that reflect a focus on these mechanisms of cognitive support to language processing. Each paper provides a theoretical perspective on or clinical application of the most current empirical evidence regarding the role of cognitive processes in relation to language processing. Also common to each paper is an acknowledgement of the need for additional theoretical and clinical research in this area. Although in its relative infancy, research addressing relations between language and other cognitive processes is integral for advancing our understanding of the dynamic nature of language impairment in aphasia and also for directly informing its treatment.This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Aphasiology.

The purpose of this special issue of Aphasiology is to honour Dr. Audrey Holland and her prolific research and clinical achievements over the past 50 years. The issue has been constructed to exemplify the breadth of Dr. Holland’s influence not only in terms of research topics (e.g., aphasia, dementia, research methodology) but also geographic span, with contributing authors from around the globe. All contributors, some former mentees and others contemporaries and collaborators, have been similarly inspired through their interactions with Dr. Holland to advance the field of neurogenic communication disorders, as is reflected in each of their papers.

This year’s special issue contains papers presented at the 39th Clinical Aphasiology Conference held in Keystone, Colorado in May, 2009. The issue contains another excellent mix of articles, demonstrating the depth and breadth of issues covered in clinical aphasiology at the present time. As a venue for the discussion of applied research in aphasia, CAC encourages researchers to explore the ultimate social ramifications of different assessment and treatment protocols, while retaining strong theoretical underpinnings related to both neurological and cognitive factors involved in the impairment.

The study of discourse has spanned many disciplines and is of particular interest to aphasiologists. In recent years, discourse abilities in aphasia have garnered more attention. Within this issue, different methods for evaluating discourse production in adults with aphasia to better characterize their communication impairments are presented. Also, treatments at the discourse level to improve linguistic abilities in individuals with aphasia are explored. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight the current research in this area and challenge researchers to investigate communication impairments at the discourse level and consider their findings within theoretical frameworks.

The Aphasia Therapy Workshop brings together leading experts in the field of aphasia to address current approaches to aphasia rehabilitation. The topics in this special issue include: 1) Functional communication: Social models and psychosocial approaches 2) Technological advances : Computer - based approaches 3) Aphasia therapy duration: best when intensive and prolonged?4) Cognitive neuropsychological approaches 5) (Psycho-) Linguistic approaches 6) Beyond language – cognitive aspects of language therapy The papers reflect the variety of approaches to treatment of aphasia and provide the reader with an update on the most current advances in our theories and practice of aphasia rehabilitation.

John C Marshall is one of the most influential neuropsychologists of his generation. His impact on the development of cognitive neuropsychology has been pivotal, particularly in the neuropsychology of language. This Festschrift in his honour brings together contributions from his colleagues and friends to celebrate this contribution and presents a comprehensive survey of contemporary and historical issues concerned with The Representation of Language in the Brain. There are contributions on reading, naming, syntax, comprehension, foreign accent syndrome, progressive aphasia, the history of aphasia, treatment, the evolution of language, calculation and embodied cognition. The content reflects John’s own interests in language and aphasia, and it is therefore no wonder that it also reflects current and central issues in the neuropsychology of language.

This special issue of Aphasiology brings together papers from six countries in three continents on the ways in which computers are being used in the domain. Information technology is now well established as a means of delivering treatment to people with aphasia and this issue includes papers which describe the latest ways in which this is being carried out. Doesborgh et. al. report on Multicue, a way in which the capabilities of computers are used to support cueing approaches to the treatment of naming difficulties; and Mortley et. al. use the internet as a means of delivering innovative treatment approaches to the client at home.It is important that the high tech glamour of the technology does not obscure the need to critically evaluate the contribution of this mode of treatment. Two papers, Wallesch & Johanssen-Horbach, and Wertz & Katz, review and critique the outcomes and effectiveness of computer mediated therapy.In the 21st century computers are increasingly a part of everyday life and two papers address ways in which people with aphasia may benefit from this and engage in the emerging "information society", Van de Sandt-Koenderman looks at ways in which the technology can be used to support communication in day to day life by the provision of appropriate communication aids. Egan et. al. report on training people with aphasia to access the internet on their own account so that they may fully engage with this resource as active citizens.

The Aphasia Therapy Workshop brings together leading experts in the field of aphasia to address current approaches to aphasia rehabilitation. The topics in this special issue include: 1) Functional communication: Social models and psychosocial approaches 2) Technological advances : Computer - based approaches 3) Aphasia therapy duration: best when intensive and prolonged?4) Cognitive neuropsychological approaches 5) (Psycho-) Linguistic approaches 6) Beyond language – cognitive aspects of language therapy The papers reflect the variety of approaches to treatment of aphasia and provide the reader with an update on the most current advances in our theories and practice of aphasia rehabilitation.

John C Marshall is one of the most influential neuropsychologists of his generation. His impact on the development of cognitive neuropsychology has been pivotal, particularly in the neuropsychology of language. This Festschrift in his honour brings together contributions from his colleagues and friends to celebrate this contribution and presents a comprehensive survey of contemporary and historical issues concerned with The Representation of Language in the Brain. There are contributions on reading, naming, syntax, comprehension, foreign accent syndrome, progressive aphasia, the history of aphasia, treatment, the evolution of language, calculation and embodied cognition. The content reflects John’s own interests in language and aphasia, and it is therefore no wonder that it also reflects current and central issues in the neuropsychology of language.

This special issue of Aphasiology examines the issues of access and inclusion as experienced by people with aphasia. A comprehensive editorial introduces the seven papers drawn from four different countries, and the issue reflects a balance of theoretical papers, detailed descriptions of access in practice, and research reports. The volume focuses on access and inclusion/exclusion in relation to information, communication, conversation and social interactions, community and life participation, health care, decision making, and service planning and delivery. The papers and their implications are relevant to clinicians and researchers across acute, rehabilitation, and community healthcare setting, as well as community social services.

This issue includes studies demonstrating how advanced imaging techniques and new methods of recording brain function can reveal areas of the brain that are essential for specific language processes. The first two papers report use of arterial spin labelling (ASL) perfusion MRI to identify areas of poor blood flow (hypoperfusion) that have impaired neural function. The first paper describes a group study that demonstrates that severity of language impairment in aphasic patients is more strongly correlated with extent of hypoperfused tissue than with extent of infarct. The second paper is a detailed single case study of a patient with reading impairment. While conventional MRI in this patient did not reveal a lesion in regions of the brain that are thought to be crucial for reading (such as angular gyrus), ASL perfusion MRI revealed poor blood flow in the angular gyrus, which likely accounts for the patient's deficits. The third paper reports a group study that employed contrast bolus-tracking (Gadolinium) perfusion MRI to evaluate mechanisms of early aphasia recovery. Results indicate that rapid resolution of aphasia in acute stroke patients, over the first three days, occurs only in patients who show restored blood flow - reperfusion - to previously hypoperfused language cortex. These results are used as a springboard for discussing the types of interventions that are likely to be useful in various stages of aphasia recovery. The next paper illustrates how M Diffusion Tensor Imaging, which elegantly show discrete fibre tracts and lesions within them, can be used to answer questions about connections and disconnections in fibre pathways that underlie language and aphasia. The final paper discusses how new methods of analysing electrical activity from the cortex, recorded from implanted subdural grids, can reveal areas of the brain involved in American Sign Language versus spoken English.

Improving quality of life could be considered the ultimate goal of aphasia rehabilitation. Understanding clients' perspectives of their own quality of life is also crucial for targeting appropriate and effective interventions. Measuring quality of life is also an important outcome measure, crucial for ensuring adequate funding is available for aphasia services. Hence, quality of life has become a significant topic in aphasiology.This special issue of Aphasiology is dedicated to the topic of quality of life in aphasia. The issue includes a number of studies from around the world describing and measuring quality of life in this population. It also contains studies that have developed and evaluated interventions that have addressed quality of life issues in people with aphasia. The issue provides a comprehensive view of quality of life research currently being conducted in aphasiology around the world.

Written language permeates virtually every aspect of modern society and literacy plays a central role in determining the economic and personal success of the individual. However, while the importance of written language comprehension (reading) is generally acknowledged, the significance of written language expression (spelling) is often overlooked. As a result, there has been relatively little research directed at understanding the cognitive and neural bases of written language production. Equally surprising is that the treatment of written language deficits is largely neglected in the training of clinical aphasiologists and speech and language pathologists. This is particularly problematic given the evidence that written language skills may be amenable to treatment even when spoken language deficits are not. Thus the successful treatment of acquired dsygraphia may provide a means of communication for individuals who otherwise may be severely limited in their communication abilities. This volume seeks to provide an overview of the state-of-the-field by bringing together a collection of research papers concerning the treatment of written language deficits in individuals with acquired dysgraphia, along with investigations of the cognitive processes and neural substrates of written language production. In addition, the inclusion, within this volume, of papers investigating the cognitive processing and neural substrates of non-alphabetic written language codes such as Chinese and Japanese, provides an impetus to consider the ways in which the cognitive processes and neural substrates responsible for written language processing may be similar or different across languages and language codes. The broadening of the domain of investigation in this manner can only lead to a deeper understanding of written language processing, its neural bases and the methods that can be successfully used in facilitating its recovery.

The ‘PALPA’ (Pyscholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing) has become a popular resource for clinician and researcher since its publication in 1992. It is timely, therefore, that Aphasiology should host this Special Issue devoted to the PALPA, which includes papers from workers who are involved with the current and the future editions of PALPA. Papers cover the research that has appeared over the past 10 years using the PALPA and a series of investigations on the utility of different component tests of the PALPA and an overview of the impact of the PALPA on research and clinical work. Clinicians, researchers and students working in language impairments following brain damage will find this collection relevant.

This special issue of Aphasiology brings together papers from six countries in three continents on the ways in which computers are being used in the domain. Information technology is now well established as a means of delivering treatment to people with aphasia and this issue includes papers which describe the latest ways in which this is being carried out. Doesborgh et. al. report on Multicue, a way in which the capabilities of computers are used to support cueing approaches to the treatment of naming difficulties; and Mortley et. al. use the internet as a means of delivering innovative treatment approaches to the client at home.It is important that the high tech glamour of the technology does not obscure the need to critically evaluate the contribution of this mode of treatment. Two papers, Wallesch & Johanssen-Horbach, and Wertz & Katz, review and critique the outcomes and effectiveness of computer mediated therapy.In the 21st century computers are increasingly a part of everyday life and two papers address ways in which people with aphasia may benefit from this and engage in the emerging "information society", Van de Sandt-Koenderman looks at ways in which the technology can be used to support communication in day to day life by the provision of appropriate communication aids. Egan et. al. report on training people with aphasia to access the internet on their own account so that they may fully engage with this resource as active citizens.

Communication disorders are a problem for people around the world. However, language disorders are rarely studied within the context of bilingualism. This is despite the fact that the majority of individuals who are affected by acquired language disorders are multilingual. Studies of bilingual aphasic speakers reveal important insights about the cognitive and neurological factors involved in multilingualism and have an impact on the assessment and the rehabilitation of aphasic speakers. The aim of this Special Issue is to present papers by leading researchers in the field of aphasia and to examine the patterns of speech and language disorders among speakers who have varying proficiency in their native and non-native languages.

The purpose of this special issue of Aphasiology is to honour Dr. Audrey Holland and her prolific research and clinical achievements over the past 50 years. The issue has been constructed to exemplify the breadth of Dr. Holland’s influence not only in terms of research topics (e.g., aphasia, dementia, research methodology) but also geographic span, with contributing authors from around the globe. All contributors, some former mentees and others contemporaries and collaborators, have been similarly inspired through their interactions with Dr. Holland to advance the field of neurogenic communication disorders, as is reflected in each of their papers.

This year’s special issue contains papers presented at the 39th Clinical Aphasiology Conference held in Keystone, Colorado in May, 2009. The issue contains another excellent mix of articles, demonstrating the depth and breadth of issues covered in clinical aphasiology at the present time. As a venue for the discussion of applied research in aphasia, CAC encourages researchers to explore the ultimate social ramifications of different assessment and treatment protocols, while retaining strong theoretical underpinnings related to both neurological and cognitive factors involved in the impairment.

The study of discourse has spanned many disciplines and is of particular interest to aphasiologists. In recent years, discourse abilities in aphasia have garnered more attention. Within this issue, different methods for evaluating discourse production in adults with aphasia to better characterize their communication impairments are presented. Also, treatments at the discourse level to improve linguistic abilities in individuals with aphasia are explored. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight the current research in this area and challenge researchers to investigate communication impairments at the discourse level and consider their findings within theoretical frameworks.

Research in language processing and language impairment has focused extensively on elements of linguistic representation that are accessed and retrieved in comprehension, repetition and production of words and sentences. These studies have provided important information about the effects of characteristics of words (e.g., frequency, imageability) and sentences (e.g., syntactic and semantic argument structure) on language processing. A smaller but nonetheless rapidly growing body of research has been directed to understanding those cognitive processes that mediate access, maintenance and retrieval of those representations. The papers in this book focus on theoretical accounts of the role of short-term memory and working memory in language processing as well as clinical applications that reflect a focus on these mechanisms of cognitive support to language processing. Each paper provides a theoretical perspective on or clinical application of the most current empirical evidence regarding the role of cognitive processes in relation to language processing. Also common to each paper is an acknowledgement of the need for additional theoretical and clinical research in this area. Although in its relative infancy, research addressing relations between language and other cognitive processes is integral for advancing our understanding of the dynamic nature of language impairment in aphasia and also for directly informing its treatment.This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Aphasiology.

This is the annual published proceedings of the 36th Clinical Aphasiology Conference (CAC). It was held in Ghent, Belgium, and was the first CAC meeting to be held outside North America. As a result, the 2006 CAC attracted a substantial number of submissions from European researchers and clinicians, many of whom had never attended CAC before. Included in this issue are papers that have been peer reviewed and selected from among the papers and posters presented at CAC. Both theoretical and clinical papers relevant to the provision of clinical services to people with aphasia are included.

Introductory textbooks on neurogenic communication disorders associated with aphasia and brain injury do not provide full documentation of the pervasive influence of perseveration in the diagnosis and treatment of clients with severe language processing deficits. This special issue of Aphasiology aims to revives the profound interest in verbal perseveration observed in the classical German literature between 1890 and 1931. Various aspects of the phenomenon of perseveration are addressed in this issue. When and under what circumstances do perseverations occur? What are the characteristics of perseverative errors and how do they relate to non-perseverative sound and word errors? The papers share a common goal, namely to understand the origin of the phenomenon `perseveration’ in healthy subjects and clients with brain damage and injury. An overarching claim throughout the papers is that perseveration reflects the client’s primary language processing deficits.

The concept of a "mental syllabary", i.e., a store of syllable-sized motor planning units, has become a cornerstone in the modeling of spoken language production. This idea lead to the question of the significance of syllabic representations in speech impairments, especially in apraxia of speech, but also in other fields of neurolinguistic inquiry (e.g. phonemic paraphasia or dyslexia). The Special Issue The syllable and beyond - New evidence from disordered speech" presents a cross-section of the current discussion on the role of the syllable in speech and language processing in neurologic and neuro-degenerative disorders.