Treatment generalization and executive control processes: preliminary data from Chinese anomic individuals.
BACKGROUND
While various treatment approaches have been shown to be effective in remediating word-finding difficulties in aphasic individuals, interest has recently been directed at the role of executive functions in affecting treatment outcomes.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the existence of a possible relationship between treatment generalization and executive control abilities.


METHODS
An identical treatment protocol using the English alphabet as letter cues to facilitate name retrieval was applied to five Cantonese-speaking anomic individuals. A series of language and cognitive tasks were administered to help identify which deficit(s) would affect treatment results.


RESULTS
All five participants demonstrated improvement in naming treated items. However, only two subjects with better inhibitory control exhibited significant gains in naming phonologically related untrained items.


CONCLUSIONS
The preliminary results not only converge on current findings of the role of executive functions in rehabilitation results, but also identify in particular how inhibitory control may affect the outcomes of anomia therapy.
Yeung
Olivia
O
Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Law
Sam-Po
SP
Yau
Monna
M
D000328:Adult; D000849:Anomia / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications; D003463:Cues; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D016896:Treatment Outcome