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BACKGROUND Many speakers with non-fluent aphasia (NFA) are able to produce some well-formed word combinations such as 'I like it' or 'I don't know', although they may not use variations such as 'He likes it' or 'I don't know that person'. This suggests that these utterances represent fixed forms. AIMS This case series investigation explored the impact of a novel intervention aimed at enhancing the connected speech of individuals with NFA. The intervention, motivated by usage-based principles, involved filling open slots in semi-fixed sentence frames. METHODS & PROCEDURES Five participants with NFA completed a 6-week intervention programme. The intervention trained participants to insert a range of different lexical items into the open slots of high-frequency phrases such as 'I like it' to enable more productive sentences (e.g., 'they like flowers'). The outcomes and acceptability were examined: The primary outcome measure focused on changes in connected narrative, and the availability of trained constructions (e.g., 'I like it') was explored through a story completion test. Two baseline measures of behaviour were taken prior to intervention, and outcomes assessed immediately after intervention and at a 6-week maintenance assessment. OUTCOME & RESULTS A pre-/post-treatment comparison of connected speech measures showed evidence of enhanced connected speech for two of the five participants (P2 and P5). An analysis of story completion test scores revealed positive change for two participants (P1 and P2). Findings were mixed with regard to baseline stability of outcome measures and post-intervention stability of language changes. The intervention was acceptable to all participants. CONCLUSION & IMPLICATIONS While this pilot study yielded promising findings with regard to the intervention's acceptability and increased connected speech for some participants, the findings were mixed across the sample of five participants. This research helps inform hypotheses and selection criteria for future studies. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS What is already known on the subject Despite difficulties producing grammatically correct sentences, many speakers with aphasia are able to produce well-formed utterances, often representing familiar expressions such as 'I don't know' and 'I like it'. In usage-based Construction Grammar (CxG) theories, familiar utterances are assumed to be processed as one unit and are therefore more resilient to brain damage. CxG assumes that residual utterances such as 'I like it' map onto more abstract sentence frames (e.g., '[REFERENT] like-TENSE [THING]'). What this paper adds to existing knowledge Sentence therapy, informed by CxG principles, is novel in aphasiology, and usage-based interventions need to be evaluated with regard to their impact on language processing at the connected speech level. This case series report explores the acceptability and outcomes of a usage-based sentence therapy. We also introduce and explore the value of an automated, frequency-based analysis tool for evaluating connected speech outcomes in aphasia therapy. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The findings inform further development of usage-based aphasia interventions targeting word combinations.

Objective: To determine the relationship between language abnormalities and broader cognitive impairment and thought disorder by examining language and cognition in schizophrenia and aphasia (a pri...

Formal thought disorder (FTD) in schizophrenia (SZ) is clinically manifested primarily through language production, where linguistic studies have reported numerous anomalies including lesser use of embedded clauses. Here, we explored whether problems of language may extend to comprehension and clause embedding in particular. A sentence-picture matching task was designed with two conditions in which embedded clauses were presupposed as either true (factive) or not. Performance across these two conditions was compared in people with SZ and moderate-to-severe FTD (SZ + FTD), SZ with minimal FTD (SZ-FTD), first-degree relatives of people with SZ, and neurotypical controls. The SZ + FTD group performed significantly worse than all others in both conditions, and worse in the nonfactive than in the factive one. These results demonstrate language dysfunction in comprehension specific to FTD is a critical aspect of grammatical complexity and its associated meaning, which has been independently known to be cognitively significant as well.

In factive clausal embedding ([He knows [that it is warm outside]]), the embedded clause is presupposed to be true. In non-factive embedding ([He thinks [that it is warm outside]]) there is no presupposition, and in counterfactive embedding ([It only seems [that it is warm outside]]) the embedded clause is presupposed to be false. These constructions have been investigated as a window into the complexity of language and thought, and there are disputes as to the relative contributions of lexical, syntactic or non-verbal resources in their interpretation. We designed a sentence-picture matching task to test comprehension of these constructions in a group of aphasic participants and in non-brain-damaged controls. In particular, we tested the capacity to reach a factive or counterfactive interpretation. In factive interpretation trials, participants with aphasia performed nearly as well as controls, while in counterfactive interpretation trials they performed significantly worse. Accuracy in factive and counterfactive interpretation trials correlated with other syntactic and lexical measures. Only performances on counterfactive trials correlated with non-verbal reasoning measures. Exploratory regression models suggest that verbal and non-verbal scores were separate factors. Results indicate that a disruption of counterfactive interpretation in aphasia is linked to reduction of syntactic and/or conceptual-propositional capacities.

Background: Familiar collocations (e.g., “it’s alright”) are an important part of everyday conversation. Such word combinations are often retained in speakers with Broca’s aphasia. However, only fe...

International audience; Language production provides important markers of neurological health. One feature of impairments of language and cognition, such as those that occur in stroke aphasia or Alzheimer's disease, is an overuse of high frequency, “familiar” expressions. We used computerized analysis to profile narrative speech samples from speakers with variants of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), including subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA). Analysis was performed on language samples from 29 speakers with semantic variant PPA (svPPA), 25 speakers with logopenic variant PPA (lvPPA), 34 speakers with non-fluent variant PPA (nfvPPA), 14 speakers with behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD) and 20 older normal controls (NCs). We used frequency and collocation strength measures to determine use of familiar words and word combinations. We also computed word counts, content word ratio and a combination ratio, a measure of the degree to which the individual produces connected language. All dementia subtypes differed significantly from NCs. The most discriminating variables were word count, combination ratio, and content word ratio, each of which distinguished at least one dementia group from NCs. All participants with PPA, but not participants with bvFTD, produced significantly more frequent forms at the level of content words, word combinations, or both. Each dementia group differed from the others on at least one variable, and language production variables correlated with established behavioral measures of disease progression. A machine learning classifier, using narrative speech variables, achieved 90% accuracy when classifying samples as NC or dementia, and 59.4% accuracy when matching samples to their diagnostic group. Automated quantification of spontaneous speech in both language-led and non-language led dementias, is feasible. It allows extraction of syndromic profiles that complement those derived from standardized tests, warranting further evaluation as candidate biomarkers. Inclusion of frequency-based language variables benefits profiling and classification.

Statistical properties of language provide important cues for language learning and may be processed by domain-general cognitive systems. We investigated the relationship between implicit statistical learning (the unconscious detection of statistical regularities in input) and language production. Twenty typically developing (TD) children and nine children with acquired language disorders (ALD) (aged 6 to 18 years) took part in a Boston Cookie Theft picture description task. Using a computerized analysis, we investigated statistical properties, such as usage frequency of words and collocation strength of word combinations. Participants also completed a non-linguistic serial reaction time (SRT) task, which tested non-verbal, implicit statistical learning in the visual-motor modality. We determined age effects, and compared language production and SRT performance between both groups. Older TD children produced more connected language, more words, less frequent function words, more rare or novel combinations, and showed better statistical learning. Children with ALD produced less connected language, more weakly collocated combinations, displayed less lexical diversity and showed poorer statistical learning. Post-hoc analyses found correlations between statistical learning and statistical properties of spoken language. Given the rarity and heterogeneity of children with ALD, group size was small and the study should be considered exploratory. However, we note that results are compatible with the view that language production draws on statistical learning and that impairment of statistical learning can be related to language disorders. [This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Speech, Language and Hearing on 20 August 2021, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/2050571X.2021.1954837]

Background: Reliance on formulaic language, i.e., holistically processed multiword chunks, is claimed to distinguish speakers with aphasia, speakers with right-hemisphere damage (RHD), and neurotypical controls (NC). Frequency and collocation strength of word combinations are indicators of formulaic language.Aims: We aimed to determine frequency and collocation properties of spoken production, as indicators of formulaic language, in people with aphasia, speakers with RHD and NC.Methods and Procedures: We used computerized methods to investigate spontaneous language in 40 speakers: 10 with fluent aphasia (fA), 10 with non-fluent aphasia (nfA), 10 with RHD, and 10 NC. Our analysis not only focused on frequency and collocation strength of grammatical combinations as markers of formulaic language (using the British National Corpus as reference), but also looked at word frequency, language fluency, proportion of content words, and measures of lexical and combinatorial diversity.Outcomes and Results: Bo...

The ability to combine individual meanings into complex representations of the world is often associated with language. Yet people also construct combinatorial event-level representations from non-linguistic input, e.g. from visual scenes. Here, we test whether the language network in the human brain is involved in and necessary for semantic processing of nonverbal events. In Experiment 1, we scanned participants with fMRI while they performed a semantic plausibility judgment task vs. a difficult perceptual control task on sentences and line drawings that describe/depict simple agent-patient interactions. We found that the language network responded robustly during the semantic task but not during the perceptual control task. This effect was observed for both sentences and pictures (although the response to sentences was stronger). Thus, language regions in healthy adults are engaged during a semantic task performed on pictorial depictions of events. But is this engagement necessary? In Experiment 2, we tested two individuals with global aphasia, who have sustained massive damage to perisylvian language areas and display severe language difficulties, against a group of age-matched control participants. Individuals with aphasia were severely impaired on a task of matching sentences and pictures. However, they performed close to controls in assessing the plausibility of pictorial depictions of agent-patient interactions. Overall, our results indicate that the left fronto-temporal language network is recruited but not necessary for semantic processing of nonverbal events.

Everyday speech is produced with an intricate timing pattern and rhythm. Speech units follow each other with short interleaving pauses, which can be either bridged by fillers (erm, ah) or empty. Through their syntactic positions, pauses connect to the thoughts expressed. We investigated whether disturbances of thought in schizophrenia are manifest in patterns at this level of linguistic organization, whether these are seen in first degree relatives (FDR) and how specific they are to formal thought disorder (FTD). Spontaneous speech from 15 participants without FTD (SZ-FTD), 15 with FTD (SZ+FTD), 15 FDRs and 15 neurotypical controls (NC) was obtained from a storytelling task and rated for pauses subclassified by syntactic position and duration. SZ-FTD produced significantly more unfilled pauses than NC in utterance-initial positions and before embedded clauses. Unfilled pauses occurring withinclausal units did not distinguish any groups. SZ-FTD also differed from SZ+FTD in producing significantly more pauses before embedded clauses. SZ+FTD differed from NC and FDR only in ‘long’ (between 1 and 3 seconds) utterance-initial pauses. FDRs produced significantly fewer fillers than NC. Results reveal that the temporal organization of speech is an important window on disturbances of the thought process and how these relate to language.

Everyday speech is produced with an intricate timing pattern and rhythm. Speech units follow each other with short interleaving pauses, which can be either bridged by fillers (erm, ah) or empty. Through their syntactic positions, pauses connect to the thoughts expressed. We investigated whether disturbances of thought in schizophrenia are manifest in patterns at this level of linguistic organization, whether these are seen in first degree relatives (FDR) and how specific they are to formal thought disorder (FTD). Spontaneous speech from 15 participants without FTD (SZ-FTD), 15 with FTD (SZ+FTD), 15 FDRs and 15 neurotypical controls (NC) was obtained from a comic strip retelling task and rated for pauses subclassified by syntactic position and duration. SZ-FTD produced significantly more unfilled pauses than NC in utterance-initial positions and before embedded clauses. Unfilled pauses occurring within clausal units did not distinguish any groups. SZ-FTD also differed from SZ+FTD in producing significantly more pauses before embedded clauses. SZ+FTD differed from NC and FDR only in producing longer utterance-initial pauses. FDRs produced significantly fewer fillers than NC. Results reveal that the temporal organization of speech is an important window on disturbances of the thought process and how these relate to language. This research was supported by the Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust (including Research Capability Funding), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/L004070/1 to W.H.), the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spanish Government (FFI2016-77647-C2-1-P to W.H.), and Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR-1265 to W.H.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Artificial grammar learning is an empirical paradigm that investigates basic pattern and structural processing in different populations. It can inform how higher cognitive functions, such as language use, take place. Our study used artificial grammar learning to assess how children with Williams syndrome (WS; n = 16) extract patterns in structured sequences of synthetic speech, how they compare to typically developing (TD) children (n = 60), and how prosodic cues affect learning. The TD group was divided into a group whose nonverbal abilities were within the range of the WS group, and a group whose chronological age was within the range of the WS group. TD children relied mainly on rule-based generalization when making judgments about sequence acceptability, whereas children with WS relied on familiarity with specific stimulus combinations. The TD participants whose nonverbal abilities were similar to the WS group showed less evidence of relying on grammaticality than TD participants whose chronological age was similar to the WS group. In absence of prosodic cues, the children with WS did not demonstrate evidence of learning. Results suggest that, in WS children, the transition to rule-based processing in language does not keep pace with TD children and may be an indication of differences in neurocognitive mechanisms.

Background: The language profile of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) remains to be fully defined. Objective: We aimed to quantify the extent of language deficits in this patient group. Methods: We assessed a cohort of patients with bvFTD (n = 24) in relation to patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA; n = 14), nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA; n = 18), and healthy age-matched individuals (n = 24) cross-sectionally and longitudinally using a comprehensive battery of language and general neuropsychological tests. Neuroanatomical associations of language performance were assessed using voxel-based morphometry of patients’ brain magnetic resonance images. Results: Relative to healthy controls, and after accounting for nonverbal executive performance, patients with bvFTD showed deficits of noun and verb naming and single word comprehension, diminished spontaneous propositional speech, and deterioration in naming performance over time. Within the bvFTD group, patients with MAPT mutations had more severe impairments of noun naming and single word comprehension than patients with C9orf72 mutations. Overall the bvFTD group had less severe language deficits than patients with PPA, but showed a language profile that was qualitatively similar to svPPA. Neuroanatomical correlates of naming and word comprehension performance in bvFTD were identified predominantly in inferior frontal and antero-inferior temporal cortices within the dominant hemispheric language network. Conclusions: bvFTD is associated with a language profile including verbal semantic impairment that warrants further evaluation as a novel biomarker.

Emerging linguistic evidence points at disordered language behavior as a defining characteristic of schizophrenia. In this article we review this literature and demonstrate how a framework focusing on two core functions of language - reference and propositional meaning - can conceptualize schizophrenic symptoms, identify important variables for risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment, and inform cognitive behavioral therapy and other remedial approaches. We introduce the linguistic phenomena of deictic anchoring and propositional complexity, explain how they relate to schizophrenic symptoms, and demonstrate how they can be tracked in language behavior.

BACKGROUND: Language change can be a valuable biological marker of overall cognitive change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other forms of dementia. Previous reports have described increased use of language formulas in AD, i.e., combinations likely processed in a holistic manner. Words that commonly occur together are more likely to become a formula. OBJECTIVE: To determine if frequency of co-occurrence as one indicator for formulaic language can distinguish people with probable AD from controls and if variables are sensitive to time post-symptom onset. METHODS: We developed the Frequency in Language Analysis Tool (FLAT), which indicates degrees of formulaicity in an individual language sample. The FLAT accomplishes this by comparing individual language samples to co-occurrence data from the British National Corpus (BNC). Our analysis also contained more conventional language variables in order to assess novel contributions of the FLAT. We analyzed data from the Pitt Corpus, which is part of DementiaBank. RESULTS: Both conventional and co-occurrence variables were able to distinguish AD and control groups. According to co-occurrence data, people with probable AD produced more formulaic language than controls. Only co-occurrence variables correlated with disease progression. DISCUSSION: Frequency of word co-occurrences is one indicator for formulaicity and a valuable contribution to characterizing language change in AD.

Processing of linear word order (linear configuration) is important for virtually all languages and essential to languages such as English which have little functional morphology. Damage to systems underpinning configurational processing may specifically affect word-order reliant sentence structures. We explore order processing in WR, a man with primary progressive aphasia (PPA). In a previous report, we showed how WR showed impaired processing of actives, which rely strongly on word order, but not passives where functional morphology signals thematic roles. Using the artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigm, we examined WR's ability to process order in non-verbal, visual sequences and compared his profile to that of healthy controls, and aphasic participants with and without severe syntactic disorder. Results suggested that WR, like some other patients with severe syntactic impairment, was unable to detect linear configurational structure. The data are consistent with the notion that disruption of possibly domain-general linearization systems differentially affects processing of active and passive sentence structures. Further research is needed to test this account, and we suggest hypotheses for future studies.

Research into agrammatic comprehension in English has described a pattern of impaired understanding of passives and retained ability on active constructions. Some accounts of this dissociation predict that patients who are unable to comprehend actives will also be impaired in the comprehension of passives. We report the case of a man with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (WR), whose comprehension was at chance on active sentences, but at ceiling on passives. In a series of reversible sentence comprehension tests WR displayed difficulties with active transitives and truncated actives with an auxiliary. In passive sentences, he displayed sensitivity to the agent marker by, as well as the passive morphology of the verb. This pattern of dissociation challenges current theories of agrammatic comprehension. We explore explanations based on the distinction between morphological and configurational cues, as well as on the semantic and discourse related differences between active and passive constructions.

One factor in syntactic impairment in aphasia might be damage to general structure processing systems. In such a case, deficits would be evident in the processing of syntactically structured non-linguistic information. To explore this hypothesis, we examined performances on artificial grammar learning (AGL) tasks in which the grammar was expressed in non-linguistic visual forms. In the first experiment, AGL behavior of four aphasic participants with severe syntactic impairment, five aphasic participants without syntactic impairment, and healthy controls was examined. Participants were trained on sequences of nonsense stimuli with the structure A(n)B(n). Data were analyzed at an individual level to identify different behavioral profiles and account for heterogeneity in aphasic as well as healthy groups. Healthy controls and patients without syntactic impairment were more likely to learn configurational (item order) than quantitative (counting) regularities. Quantitative regularities were only detected by individuals who also detected the configurational properties of the stimulus sequences. By contrast, two individuals with syntactic impairment learned quantitative regularities, but showed no sensitivity towards configurational structure. They also failed to detect configurational structure in a second experiment in which sequences were structured by the grammar A(+)B(+). We discuss the potential relationship between AGL and processing of word order as well as the potential of AGL in clinical practice.

Artificial grammar learning (AGL) is a widely used experimental paradigm that investigates how syntactic structures are processed. After a familiarization phase, participants have to distinguish strings consistent with a set of grammatical rules from strings that violate these rules. Many experiments report performance solely at a group level and as the total number of correct judgments. This report describes a systematic approach for investigating individual performance and a range of different behaviors. Participants were exposed to strings of the nonfinite grammar A( n )B( n ). To distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical strings, participants had to pay attention to local dependencies while comparing the number of stimuli from each class. Individual participants showed substantially different behavioral patterns despite exposure to the same stimuli. The results were replicated across auditory and visual sensory modalities. It is suggested that an analysis that looks at individual differences grants new insights into the processes involved in AGL. It also provides a solid basis from which to investigate sequence-processing abilities in special populations, such as patients with neurological lesions.