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The current study sought to investigate whether word properties can facilitate the identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) in sequential bilinguals by analyzing properties in nouns and verbs in L2 spontaneous speech as potential DLD markers. Measures of semantic (imageability, concreteness), lexical (frequency, age of acquisition) and phonological (phonological neighbourhood, word length) properties were computed for nouns and verbs produced by 15 sequential bilinguals (5;7) with DLD and 15 age-matched controls with diverse L1 backgrounds. Linear mixed modelling revealed a significant interaction of group and word category on phonological neighbourhood values but no differences across imageability, concreteness, frequency, age of acquisition, and word length measures in spontaneous speech. Outcomes suggest that group-level differences may not be apparent at the word-level, due to the heterogeneous nature of DLD and potential similarities in production during early L2 acquisition.

BackgroundAphasia therapy software applications (apps) can help achieve recommendations regarding aphasia treatment intensity and duration. However, we currently know very little about speech and language therapists’ (SLTs) preferences with regards to these apps. This may be problematic, as clinician acceptance of novel treatments and technology are a key factor for successful translation from research evidence to practice.AimThis research aimed to increase our understanding of clinicians’ experiences with aphasia therapy apps and their perceived barriers and facilitators to the use of aphasia apps. Furthermore, we wanted to explore the influence of some demographic factors (age, country, and SLT availability in the client’s hometown) on SLTs’ attitudes towards these apps.Method & Procedures35 Dutch and 29 Australian SLTs completed an online survey. The survey contained 9 closed-ended questions and 3 open-ended questions. Responses to the closed-ended questions were summarised through the use of descriptive statistics. The responses to the open questions were analysed and coded into recurring themes that were derived from the data. Logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the relationship between the demographic variables and the responses to the closed-ended questions.Outcomes & resultsParticipants were overwhelmingly positive about aphasia therapy apps and saw the potential for their clients to use apps independently. As facilitators of app use, participants reported accessibility and inclusion of different language modalities, while high costs, absence of a compatible device, and clients’ potential computer illiteracy were listed as barriers. None of the analysed demographic factors consistently influenced differences in participants’ attitudes towards aphasia therapy apps.ConclusionsThe positive, extensive and insightful feedback from speech and language therapists is both useful and encouraging for app developers and aphasia researchers, and should facilitate the development of appropriate, high-quality therapy apps.

Introdução: A necessidade e o interesse na investigação pelos Terapeutas da Fala (TFs) tem sido crescente. Objetivos: (i) caracterizar o nível de autonomia atual dos TFs em Portugal em investigação científica; (ii) caracterizar o nível de autonomia desejado dos TFs em Portugal em investigação científica; (iii) caracterizar as necessidades de formação assim como identificar as barreiras e facilitadores de práticas de investigação dos TFs em Portugal. Métodos: 86 TFs preencheram um questionário validado por um painel de peritos. A recolha de dados incidiu sobre: (i) nível de autonomia atual e desejado para a prática de investigação; (ii) barreiras e facilitadores inerentes à prática da investigação. Resultados: Os níveis de autonomia foram significativamente inferiores aos níveis desejados (p

The comparison between nouns and verbs has been a topic of interest for many researchers over the last 50 years. This comparison, and subsequent behavioral and (partly) anatomic dissociation, has allowed researchers to delve into many topics including the behavioral architecture of the language system and its neural correlates, the underlying nature of the linguistic impairment in individuals with different neurologic disorders, the assessment of language treatment protocols, and the proposal of new protocols aimed to protect the language system of individuals undergoing surgery for brain tumors and epilepsy. Specific to the left temporal lobe, classic accounts have shown its relevance for the processing of nouns and less for the processing of verbs. Nonetheless, more recent accounts indicate that different areas in the left temporal lobe can subserve different functions for the processing of both nouns and verbs. In this chapter, we outlined an overview of key findings of the study of nouns and verbs, with a particular focus on the left temporal lobe. This chapter contextualizes the literature on category-specific impairments and neural correlates of nouns and verbs with linguistic and psycholinguistic theories, and provides new ways to investigate and understand the intricacies of this comparison.

Background: In early stages, individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) report language symptoms while scoring within norm in formal language tests. Early intervention is important due to the progressive nature of the disease. Method: We report a single-case study of an individual with logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA). We tested whether letter fluency, used as a therapy task, can improve lexical retrieval when combined with tDCS to either the left inferior-frontal gyrus (IFG) or the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), administered in two separate therapy phases separated by a wash-out period of 3 months. Outcomes and results: We observed increases in number of words retrieved during a letter fluency task in trained and untrained letters, when letter fluency therapy (LeFT) was administered with anodal tDCS. When LeFT was combined with left IFG stimulation, words produced in a letter fluency task were lower frequency and higher age of acquisition after treatment, compared to before treatment and there was also an increase in accuracy and response times in an untrained picture-naming task. Conclusions: The results indicate that letter fluency therapy combined anodal tDCS is effective in improving lexical retrieval, particularly when left IFG stimulation was used. Effects generalize beyond the trained task, albeit slowing down of responses in picture naming. This task may provide a useful clinical intervention strategy for patients with mild anomia, who are not challenged enough by traditional naming therapies.

People with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) present language difficulties that require lengthy assessments and follow-ups. Despite individual differences, people with PPA are often classified into three variants that present some distinctive language difficulties. We analyzed the data of 6 fluency tasks (i.e., “F”, “A”, “S”, “Fruits”, “Animals”, “Vegetables”). We used random forests to pinpoint relevant word properties and error types in the classification of the three PPA variants, conditional inference trees to indicate how relevant variables may interact with one another and ANOVAs to cross-validate the results. Results indicate that total word count helps distinguish healthy individuals (N = 10) from people with PPA (N = 29). Furthermore, mean familiarity differentiates people with svPPA (N = 8) from people with lvPPA (N = 10) and nfvPPA (N = 11). No other word property or error type was relevant in the classification. These results relate to previous literature, as familiarity effects have been reported in people with svPPA in naming and spontaneous speech. Also, they strengthen the relevance of using familiarity to identify a specific group of people with PPA. This paper enhances our understanding of what determines word retrieval in people with PPA, complementing and extending data from naming studies.

Background Animal fluency is a widely used task to assess people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurological disorders. The mechanisms that drive performance in this task are argued to rely on language and executive functions. However, there is little information regarding what specific aspects of these cognitive processes drive performance on this task. Objective To understand which aspects of language (i.e., semantics, phonological output lexicon, phonological assembly) and executive function (i.e., mental set shifting; information updating and monitoring; inhibition of possible responses) are involved in the performance of animal fluency in people with AD. Methods Animal fluency data from 58 people with probable AD from the DementiaBank Pittsburgh Corpus were analyzed. Number of clusters and switches were measured and nine word properties (e.g., frequency, familiarity) for each of the correct words (i.e., each word counting toward the total score, disregarding non-animals and repetitions) were determined. Random forests were used to understand which variables predicted the total number of correct words, and conditional inference trees were used to search for interactions between the variables. Finally, Wilcoxon tests were implemented to cross-validate the results, by comparing the performance of participants with scores below the norm in animal fluency against participants with scores within the norm based on a large normative sample. Results Switches and age of acquisition emerged as the most important variables to predict total number of correct words in animal fluency in people with AD. Cross-validating the results, people with AD whose animal fluency scores fell below the norm produced fewer switches and words with lower age of acquisition than people with AD with scores in the normal range. Conclusion The results indicate that people with AD rely on executive functioning (information updating and monitoring) and language (phonological output lexicon, not necessarily semantics) to produce words on animal fluency.

Adults with COPD frequently present with dysphagia, which often leads to clinical complications and hospital admissions. This study investigates the ability of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) to predict aspiration during objective dysphagia evaluation in adults with stable COPD. Thirty adults (20 male, 10 female; mean age = 69.07 ± 16.82) with stable COPD attended an outpatient dysphagia clinic for a fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES) in an acute teaching hospital (January 2015–November 2016). During evaluations, individuals completed an EAT-10 rating scale followed immediately by a standardised FEES exam. Aspiration status during FEES was rated using the penetration–aspiration scale by clinicians blinded to EAT-10 scores. Data were retrospectively analysed. Significant differences in mean EAT-10 scores were found between aspirators (16.3; SEM = 2.165) and non-aspirators (7.3; SEM = 1.009) (p = 0.000). The EAT-10 predicted aspiration with a high level of accuracy (AUC = 0.88). An EAT-10 cut-off value of >9 presented a sensitivity of 91.67, specificity of 77.78 with positive and negative likelihood ratios of 4.12 and 0.11, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were 73.30 and 93.30, respectively. Diagnostic odds ratio was 38.50 (p

The current study aims to determine the brain areas critical for response to anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in PPA. Anodal tDCS and sham were administered over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), combined with written naming/spelling therapy. Thirty people with PPA were included in this study, and assessed immediately, 2 weeks, and 2 months post-therapy. We identified anatomical areas whose volumes significantly predicted the additional tDCS effects. For trained words, the volumes of the left Angular Gyrus and left Posterior Cingulate Cortex predicted the additional tDCS gain. For untrained words, the volumes of the left Middle Frontal Gyrus, left Supramarginal Gyrus, and right Posterior Cingulate Cortex predicted the additional tDCS gain. These findings show that areas involved in language, attention and working memory contribute to the maintenance and generalization of stimulation effects. The findings highlight that tDCS possibly affects areas anatomically or functionally connected to stimulation targets.

Electrical Stimulation (ES) is a neurostimulation technique that is used to localize language functions in the brain of people with intractable epilepsy and/or brain tumors. We reviewed 25 ES articles published between 1984 and 2018 and interpreted them from a cognitive neuropsychological perspective. Our aim was to highlight ES as a tool to further our understanding of cognitive models of language. We focused on associations and dissociations between cognitive functions within the framework of two non-neuroanatomically specified models of language. Also, we discussed parallels between the ES and the stroke literatures and showed how ES data can help us to generate hypotheses regarding how language is processed. A good understanding of cognitive models of language is essential to motivate task selection and to tailor surgical procedures, for example, by avoiding testing the same cognitive functions and understanding which functions may be more or less relevant to be tested during surgery.

WOS: 000434639400023, Imageability is a psycholinguistic variable that indicates how well a word gives rise to a mental image or sensory experience. Imageability ratings are used extensively in psycholinguistic, neuropsychological, and aphasiological studies. However, little formal knowledge exists about whether and how these ratings are associated between and within languages. Fifteen imageability databases were cross-correlated using nonparametric statistics. Some of these corresponded to unpublished data collected within a European research network-the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (COST IS1208). All but four of the correlations were significant. The average strength of the correlations (rho = .68) and the variance explained (R (2) = 46%) were moderate. This implies that factors other than imageability may explain 54% of the results. Imageability ratings often correlate across languages. Different possibly interacting factors may explain the moderate strength and variance explained in the correlations: (1) linguistic and cultural factors; (2) intrinsic differences between the databases; (3) range effects; (4) small numbers of words in each database, equivalent words, and participants; and (5) mean age of the participants. The results suggest that imageability ratings may be used cross-linguistically. However, further understanding of the factors explaining the variance in the correlations will be needed before research and practical recommendations can be made., European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST, Action) [IS1208]; Global Brain Health Institute; Basque team; Basque Government [IT983-16-GIC 15/129]; MINECO/FEDER [FFI2015-68589-C2-1-P]; Research Council of Norway [223265]; Croatian Science Foundation; project "Adult Language Processing" (ALP) [HRZZ-2421-UIP-11-2013]; Ministry of Education Science and Technological [IO175012]; Anadolu University, Scientific Research Project (BAP) [1509S632]; PROGRAM (University of Copenhagen Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research); Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [FFI2015-68589-C2-1-P, FFI2014-61888-EXP]; [FFI2014-56968-C4-1-P], The Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs research network) is funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST, Action IS1208). For more information, please visit www.aphasiatrials.org. This project was partially supported by the Global Brain Health Institute (A.R.). The Basque team (A.M.I. and M.P.) was partially supported by the Basque Government (Grant No. IT983-16-GIC 15/129) and MINECO/FEDER (FFI2015-68589-C2-1-P). The work by the authors from Norway (M.L. and H.G.S.) was partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme (223265). The Croatian study (J.K.K.) was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation and the project "Adult Language Processing" (ALP, Grant HRZZ-2421-UIP-11-2013). The Catalan study (A.G.) was supported by project FFI2014-56968-C4-1-P. The Serbian study (J.B. and J.V.) was supported by the Ministry of Education Science and Technological development grant (#IO175012). The Turkish study (I.M. and M.T.) was supported by Anadolu University, Scientific Research Project (BAP) Grant 1509S632. The Spanish study (S.M.-F.) was partly supported by PROGRAM (University of Copenhagen Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinary Research) and projects from the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (FFI2015-68589-C2-1-P and FFI2014-61888-EXP) The Greek group thanks Sophia Apostolopoulou and Michaela Nerantzini for their contribution to data collection.

International audience; Background The European Low-Grade Glioma network indicated a need to better understand common practices regarding the managing of diffuse low-grade gliomas. This area has experienced great advances in recent years. Method A general survey on the managing of diffuse lowgrade gliomas was answered by 21 centres in 11 European countries. Here we focused on specific questions regarding perioperative and intraoperative cognitive assessments. Results More centres referred to the same speech and language therapist and/or neuropsychologist across all assessments; a core of assessment tools was routinely used across centres; fluency tasks were commonly used in the perioperative stages, and object naming during surgery; tasks that tapped on attention, executive functions, visuospatial awareness, calculation and emotions were sparsely administered; preoperative assessments were performed 1 month or 1 week before surgery; timing for postoperative assessments varied; finally, more centres recommended early rehabilitation, whenever needed. Conclusions There is an emerging trend towards following similar practices for the management of low-grade gliomas in Europe. Our results are descriptive and formalise current discussions in our group. Also, they contribute towards the development of a European assessment protocol.

Background: Castilian-Spanish, Catalan, Galician, and European Portuguese are the most widely spoken languages of the Ibero-Romance group. An increasing number of authors have addressed the impact of aphasia on the morphosyntax of these varieties. However, accurate linguistic characterisations are scarce and the different sources of data have not been yet compiled.Aims: To stimulate state-of-the-art research, we provided a comprehensive summary of morphosyntactic aspects of Ibero-Romance and a review of how these are affected in non-fluent aphasia. The topics we dealt with are the use of verb argument structure and morphology, sentential negation and word order, definite articles, personal and reflexive pronouns, passives, topicalised constructions, questions, and relative clauses.Methods & Procedures: An exhaustive fieldwork and search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Medline records were performed to retrieve studies focused on morphosyntactic issues concerning the Ibero-Romance varieties. A total of 27 studies produced by 46 authors of varying background emerged. We did not review studies of category-specific deficits and aspects related to bilingual aphasia, although we assume that most speakers of Galician and Catalan are bilingual. Studies of spontaneous speech were included when no controlled experimental tasks were available.Outcomes & Results: The morphosyntactic commonalities of Ibero-Romance have been tackled from different theoretical perspectives. There exist asymmetries in findings which we explain with the use of different tasks (and task complexity) and individual differences between participants.Conclusions: Discourse-linking factors as well as deviations from the canonical pattern are recurrent answers to these asymmetries. A comprehensive theory of impairments in non-fluent aphasia integrating relevant aspects of both structural and processing accounts seems necessary.

During awake surgery, picture-naming tests are administered to identify brain structures related to language function (language mapping), and to avoid iatrogenic damage. Before and after surgery, naming tests and other neuropsychological procedures aim at charting naming abilities, and at detecting which items the subject can respond to correctly. To achieve this goal, sufficiently large samples of normed and standardized stimuli must be available for preoperative and postoperative testing, and to prepare intraoperative tasks, the latter only including items named flawlessly preoperatively. To discuss design, norming and presentation of stimuli, and to describe the minimal standardization setting used to develop two sets of Italian stimuli, one for object naming and one for verb naming, respectively. The setting includes a naming study (to obtain picture-name agreement ratings), two on-line questionnaires (to acquire age-of-acquisition and imageability ratings for all test items), and the norming of other relevant language variables. The two sets of stimuli have >80 % picture-name agreement, high levels of internal consistency and reliability for imageability and age of acquisition ratings. They are normed for psycholinguistic variables known to affect lexical access and retrieval, and are validated in a clinical population. This framework can be used to increase the probability of reliably detecting language impairments before and after surgery, to prepare intraoperative tests based on sufficient knowledge of pre-surgical language abilities in each patient, and to decrease the probability of false positives during surgery. Examples of data usage are provided. Normative data can be found in the supplementary materials.