Search

Background and Purpose: In this paper we present the Comprehensive Aphasia Test-Hungarian (CAT-H; Zakariás and Lukács, in preparation), an assessment tool newly adapted to Hungarian, currently under standardisation. The test is suitable for the assessment of an acquired language disorder, post-stroke aphasia. The aims of this paper are to present 1) the main characteristics of the test, its areas of application, and the process of the Hungarian adaptation and standardisation, 2) the first results from a sample of Hungarian people with aphasia and healthy controls., Methods: Ninety-nine people with aphasia, mostly with unilateral, left hemisphere stroke, and 19 neurologically intact control participants were administered the CAT-H. In addition, we developed a questionnaire assessing demographic and clinical information. The CAT-H consists of two parts, a Cognitive Screening Test and a Language Test., Results: People with aphasia performed significantly worse than the control group in all language and almost all cognitive subtests of the CAT-H. Consistent with our expectations, the control group performed close to ceiling in all subtests, whereas people with aphasia exhibited great individual variability both in the language and the cognitive subtests. In addition, we found that age, time post-onset, and type of stroke were associated with cognitive and linguistic abilities measured by the CAT-H., Conclusion: Our results and our experiences clearly show that the CAT-H provides a comprehensive profile of a person's impaired and intact language abilities and can be used to monitor language recovery as well as to screen for basic cognitive deficits in aphasia. We hope that the CAT-H will be a unique resource for rehabilitation professionals and aphasia researchers in aphasia assessment and diagnostics in Hungary.

Background and Purpose: The relationship of schizophrenia and its milder, subclinical forms, with creativity has been in the centre of theoretical interest for decades, however, the systematic research of the topic only prevailed more recently. Purpose - Here we aimed to examine the connection between different schizotypal and non-schizotypal personality traits and verbal creativity in a nonclinical sample. We also investigated the correspondence of two schizotypy inventories, the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences and a special character configuration of the Temperament and Character Inventory associated with schizotypy., Methods: 57 healthy adults (14/43 m/f, mean age 21.51±1.43 years) - took part in the experiment. All participants received a detailed information sheet and gave informed consent prior to participation. Participants completed the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory and the Temperament and Character Inventory to measure both schizotypal and non-schizotypal personality traits. Torrance Test of Creative Thinking was used to measure verbal creativity. Associations between reported measures were examined with correlational and regression analyses., Results: Out of the specific Temperament and Character configuration associated with schizotypy (low self-directedness, cooperativeness and high self- transcendence), we only found low self-directedness to be correlated significantly with Oxford-Liverpool schizotypy rates (Self-directedness-schizotypy: r=-.730, p<.01). There was no significant connection between schizotypal traits and verbal creativity. In our sample, the Self-directedness and Reward-dependence character and temperament subscales predicted significantly the verbal creativity level (Self-directedness: b=.330, p=.015; Reward - dependence: b=-.260; p=.049)., Conclusion: Based on our results, besides schizotypal traits, other personality measures might be considered in relation to verbal creativity, providing further details to the empirical investigation of creativity. We found low self-directedness to be correlated with Oxford-Liverpool schizotypy rates, however, the sample size was not large enough to test the concurrent validity of the two inventories. Future studies might consider to extend the study sample, preferably to both clinical and non-clinical populations.