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Purpose: The main aim of this study is to provide French Canadian reference data for quantitative measures extracted from connected speech samples elicited by the Western Aphasia Battery–Revised picnic scene, a discourse task frequently used in clinical assessment of acquired language disorders. Method: Our sample consisted of 62 healthy French Canadian adults divided in two age groups: a 50- to 69-year-old group and a 70- to 90-year-old group. Results: High interrater reliability scores were obtained for most of the variables. Most connected speech variables did not demonstrate an age effect. However, the 70- to 90-year-old group produced more repetitions than the 50- to 69-year-old group and displayed reduced communication efficiency (number of information content units per minute). Conclusion: These findings contribute to building a reference data set to analyze descriptive discourse production in clinical settings.

Background: Previous findings have demonstrated the importance of discourse analysis in post-stroke aphasia, as it allows for in-depth examination of language impairment and represents key components of functional communication. However, little is known about the recovery of discourse over time. Aims: The main aim of this study is to measure the longitudinal changes in descriptive discourse production from the acute to chronic stages of post-stroke aphasia recovery. The secondary aim is to explore the association between discourse measures and overall language impairment severity measures at different testing points. Methods & Procedure: Seventeen French Canadian speakers with various types and severities of aphasia following a first left middle cerebral artery stroke participated in this study. They underwent three language assessments (acute: 0 to 72 hours; subacute: 7 to 14 days; chronic: 6 to 12 months post-onset). The picture description from the Western Aphasia Battery was analyzed at three time points. Changes in terms of thematic informativeness and microstructural variables were analyzed. Outcomes & Results: Regarding the micro-structural variables, the mean length of utterances (MLU) and the number of words per minute showed significant positive changes between the acute and chronic phases. For the thematic informativeness measures, the number of thematic units (TUs), the number of thematic units per minute (TUs/min) and the number of thematic units per utterance (TUs/utt) 4 increased significantly between the acute and chronic phases. Positive correlations between TUs and MLU in the acute phase and a general language impairment severity measure in the acute and chronic phases suggest a relationship between these measures and global language performance suggesting the potential predictive value of these variables in the acute phase. Conclusions & Implications: These findings support the use of thematic units in descriptive discourse analysis during an acute clinical examination of language as they require minimal additional time to score and track changes in post-stroke aphasia recovery. They capture long-term changes in discourse abilities and appear related to overall language measures in both the acute and chronic stages of recovery. The interpretation of the changes in MLU and the number of words per minute is less straightforward, as improvements in these measures carry different interpretations depending on the type of aphasia. Nonetheless, further studies are required to investigate test-retest reliability and the effect of therapy on the changes observed over time when using thematic units to document change in discourse.

Objective The present study aims to assess the relationship between quantitative measures of connected speech production and performance in confrontation naming in early post-stroke aphasia (8-14 days post-stroke). Method: We collected connected speech samples elicited by a picture description task and administered a confrontation naming task to 20 individuals with early post-stroke aphasia and 20 healthy controls. Transcriptions were made in compliance with the CHAT format guidelines. Several micro- (i.e. duration, total number of words, words per minute, mean length of utterances, ratio of open- to closed-class words and noun-to-verb ratio, VOC-D, repetitions, self-corrections, and phonological and semantic errors) and macrolinguistic (i.e. informativeness and efficiency) measures were extracted. Results: We provide evidence for the presence of impairments in an array of micro- and macrolinguistic measures of speech in individuals with early post-stroke aphasia. We show that in the patient group, confrontation naming abilities most strongly relate to informativeness in a picture description task. Conclusion: Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between performance in confrontation naming and in connected speech production in the first days after stroke onset and also suggest that discourse analysis may provide unique, possibly more complex information.

The stress-vulnerability-protective factors model is often used to explain the etiology and known risk and protective factors of initial psychotic symptoms and symptomatic relapses. Over the past 40 years since its initial conception, the model has evolved and gathered a plethora of evidence of varying quality for its different components. The objective of this metareview is to analyze the quality of the evidence and the effect sizes for each component of the model not previously reviewed. Recent meta-analyses covering each component of the model in relation to the onset of psychotic symptoms or symptomatic relapse in schizophrenia were reviewed with the grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation system. Thirty-one meta-analyses were kept, from 3,044 papers reviewed. We did not add to previous metareviews in terms of obstetric/prenatal or genetic vulnerabilities. For stressors, moderate to strong research evidence was found for childhood adversity, cannabis, methamphetamine abuse, and expressed emotions as triggers of psychotic relapse or as linked to the onset of psychotic symptoms. For protective factors, moderate to strong evidence was found for antipsychotic medication in adults, family interventions, social skills training, as well as interventions focusing on recovery management skills. Poor evidence or no evidence (i.e., absence of meta-analyses) were found for the other components of the model. More rigorous studies and systematic reviews are needed in order to validate the various components of the model in regard to symptom onset and relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

It is poorly understood whether and how normal aging affects different aspects of connected speech production, such as fluency, informativity, efficiency, and vocabulary use. The present study crosssectionally investigates the effects of age on a broad variety of language production measures, using connected speech samples elicited by the two most frequently used picture description tasks. Twenty-six young (20-25 y.o.) and twenty-two older participants (55-90 y.o.) were included in this study. Speech samples were transcribed using the CLAN program and eight measures were extracted. Our results indicate that, in a picture description task, older adults produce more disruptions to fluency, but that lexical diversity, informativity, and efficiency of speech remain unaffected by age. The use of less frequent words by older adults might reflect a larger vocabulary size. These findings have implications for future studies assessing changes in connected speech production, in both healthy and clinical populations., Le vieillissement normal module certaines habiletés cognitives, mais on ne sait pas si, et de quelle manière, différents aspects de la production du discours continu, tels que la fluence, l’informativité, l’efficacité et l’utilisation du vocabulaire, sont affectés. La présente étude transversale examine les effets de l’âge sur plusieurs mesures langagières à partir d’échantillons de discours continu suscités par les deux tâches de description d’image les plus utilisées. Vingt-six jeunes (20-25 ans) et vingt-deux participants âgés (55-90 ans) ont été recrutés. Les échantillons ont été transcrits via le programme CLAN et huit mesures ont été extraites. Nos résultats indiquent que les adultes plus âgés produisent plus de bris de fluidité verbale, mais que la diversité lexicale, l’informativité et l’efficacité du langage ne sont pas affectées par l’âge. L’usage de mots moins fréquents par les adultes plus âgés pourrait refléter un vocabulaire plus étendu. Ces résultats ont des implications pour les études futures portant sur les changements dans la production de discours continu chez les populations saines et cliniques.