Interfered-Naming Therapy for Aphasia (INTA): behavioural and computational effects of a novel linguistic-executive approach

Aphasiology, vol. 37, pp. 227–248

Abstract

Background and aims Executive functions recently have gained attention as important contributors to language performance in aphasia. Picture/word interference embraces both executive control and lexical processing through distracted confrontation naming. Thus, we created a novel approach that embedded interfered-naming into an established lexical therapy framework. We aimed to (1) investigate patients’ behavioural response to distractor types and treatment methods of interfered-naming and (2) determine specific therapy effects on linguistic versus executive processing and initial eligibility criteria.Methods Persons with word-finding difficulties in chronic aphasia received 4-week therapy in a block design with thorough pre-post-testing including computational modelling. During therapy, picture naming was distracted by auditory stimuli, which were primed by a preceding comprehension task and directly assisted by increasing semantic or phonological cues.Results Nineteen participants were included in the diagnostic study, 12 of which also completed the therapy study. Distractor types did not generally yield differential effects at baseline. The novel linguistic-executive treatment significantly improved pure naming in most (9 out of 12) cases, fostered generalisation to untrained items, increased semantic weights in the computational model, and reduced automated speech. Therapy gains correlated positively with initial distractor comprehension, lexical-semantics, and word discrimination and negatively with automated speech and conceptual-semantics.Conclusion The interference paradigm combined with computational modelling offers a useful tool for aphasia diagnosis, and the new treatment approach revealed to be effective. Semantic and executive processing appear to be the core source of improvements.

Authors 3

1. Stefanie Bruehl corresponding Aachen Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty

   RWTH Aachen University · University of Manchester · Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf · St. Mauritius Therapieklinik

   Affiliation as printed

   Heinrich-Heine University

   RWTH Aachen University

   St Mauritius Rehabilitation Centre

   University of Manchester

   Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Department of SLT and Music Therapy, St Mauritius Rehabilitation Centre, Meerbusch, Germany

   Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

   Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine University, Duesseldorf, Germany

2. Klaus Willmes Aachen Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

   Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

3. Ferdinand Binkofski Aachen Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

   Clinical and Cognitive Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany