This research proposes to characterize the reorganization patterns of the human brain in individuals with chronic aphasia. The study will measure the outcome of reorganization during and after a long-term, speech-plus-gesture communication training. The training is designed to influence recruitment of right hemisphere homologues of left hemisphere language areas in order to promote language recovery in chronic stages of aphasia.
The specific aims of this study are: (1) To improve overall communicative effectiveness in individuals with chronic non-fluent aphasia and (2) To characterize brain reorganization in chronic aphasics through analysis of language-related activation in functional magnetic resonance imaging. It is hypothesized that a multi-modal language intervention, involving both auditory-verbal (speech) and visuo-motor symbolic representation (gesture), will result in increased language-related activation in right hemisphere areas homologous to left hemisphere language areas and be associated with improved speech production and use of gesture in daily communication. This study may provide new insights to the reorganization of the brain following injury in response to training designed to target the recruitment of the right hemisphere. This insight may lead to new strategies in cognitive rehabilitation.
