Finding the Right Words in Neurogenic Communication Disorders

Summary

Every year thousands of persons suffer from brain damage resulting in anomia, that is, word finding difficulties affecting their ability to talk to other people. Anomia may be a result of stroke or of progressive neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis (MS). Word retrieval is dependent on a complex system of different neural networks and to name objects and activities can be affected to different degrees. The present project explores different aspects of naming ability in altogether 90 persons that has anomia related to stroke or to Parkinson's disease or MS. Furthermore, the communicative strategies and resources used by conversation partners in everyday conversational interaction and in care situations, affected by anomia are studied. Finally, the project includes a study of the effectiveness of a word finding training program based on stimulation of semantic and phonological networks in the brain, involved in the production of words. There is a lack of research on effects on communication from anomia in Parkinson's disease and MS and there is no research on anomia that investigates both object and action naming using a material adapted to the Swedish language. In the project quantitative and qualitative methods are used to explore and describe how persons with different neurogenic communication disorders can use different resources and communicative strategies to express themselves.

Conditions

• Anomia
• Stroke
• Aphasia
• Parkinson Disease
• Multiple Sclerosis

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Semantic feature analysis

Confrontation naming training and training in doing circumlocutions

BEHAVIORAL

Comprehension training

Reading and hearing comprehension

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Swedish Research Council

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research

  collaborator OTHER

• Göteborg University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Charlotta Saldert · Inst of Neurosci & Physiology, Speech & Language Pathology Unit University of Gothenburg

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-01-01

Primary Completion

2021-12-31

Completion

2021-12-31

Countries

• Sweden

Study Locations