Article

An aphasia treatment was designed to shift laterality from the left
to right lateral frontal lobe during word production by initiating word-finding
trials with complex left-hand movements. Previous findings indicated successful
relateralization. Objective. The current study was designed to ascertain whether
the shift was attributable to the left-hand movement. Methods. Using stratified
random sampling, 14 subjects were equally divided between Intention (IT) and
Control (CT) treatments. CT was identical to IT, except with no left-hand
movements. Both treatments trained picture naming (phases 1 and 2) and
category-member generation (phase 3), each phase lasting 10 sessions. Functional
magnetic resonance imaging of category member generation occurred at
pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Results. IT shifted lateral
frontal activity rightward compared with pretreatment both at posttreatment (t =
-2.602, df = 6, P < .05) and 3-month follow-up (t = -2.332, df = 5, P < .05), but
CT did not. IT and CT yielded similar changes for all picture-naming and category
probes. However, IT patients showed gains for untrained category (t = 3.33, df =
6, P < .01) and picture-naming probes (t = 3.77, df = 5, P < .01), but CT
patients did not. Conclusions. The rightward shift in lateral frontal activity
for IT was because of the left-hand movements. IT evoked greater generalization
than CT.
CI - (c) The Author(s) 2014.

Langue : ANGLAIS