4 TH Science of Aphasia Conference

Evidence for separate lexical tone and sentence intonation: a perception study of Chinese aphasic patients E. Capitani & M. Laiacona: A method for studying the evolution of naming error types in the recovery of acute aphasia: A single-patient and single-stimulus approach. BACKGROUND Both phonological and semantic techniques can be effective in the treatment of patients with anomia (e.g. Howard et al., 1985; Hillis, 1998). Some authors assume a direct relation between type of anomia and specific treatment effects (e.g. Miceli et al., 1996) whereas others found effects of both semantic and phonological techniques in one type of patient (e. Especially in the treatment of anomia the relationship between the underlying functional deficit and successful treatment is not straightforward. Specific effects of either semantic or phonological techniques (or both) have been described in both semantic and post-semantic anomic patients (e.g. Howard et al., 2000; Hillis, 1998). It is still not clear exactly how the treatments are working and how they can be related to underlying deficits in patients with anomia (e.g. Nickels & Best, 1996). However, only a model-based single-case approach allows for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of effects of one type of treatment in one type of patient (e. METHOD We present results from a treatment study comparing effects of a semantic and a phonological treatment on word retrieval in ten aphasic patients. Single word processing in the patients was investigated before therapy started, so that specific treatment effects could be interpreted with regard to underlying functional deficit(s) in each patient (LeMo, Stadie et al. Ten aphasic patients with severe word retrieval deficits as a major symptom of their aphasia participated in the study. Patients with fluent (N=5) and with non-fluent spontaneous speech (N=5) were included (Wernicke: N=4; transcortical-sensory: N=1; Broca; N=1; global: N=3; not classifiable: N=1). None of the patients had severe apraxia of speech or dysarthria. Most of the patients had a variety of disorders in addition to their anomia, including disorders of reading, repetition, and writing of words and pseudowords. The semantic processing of single words and / or pictures was severely impaired in six of the patients. On these grounds they were classified as semantic anomics. In four patients the anomia was classified as post-semantic (N=4) since their receptive semantic processing of single nouns was preserved or only mildly impaired. In a crossover design three blocks of treatment were applied to each patient. …