title: Improved Neural Processing Efficiency in a Chronic Aphasia Patient Following Melodic Intonation Therapy: A Neuropsychological and Functional MRI Study.
abstract: Melodic intonation therapy (MIT) is a treatment program for the rehabilitation of aphasic patients with speech production disorders. We report a case of severe chronic non-fluent aphasia unresponsive to several years of conventional therapy that showed a marked improvement following intensive 9-day training on the Japanese version of MIT (MIT-J). The purpose of this study was to verify the efficacy of MIT-J by functional assessment and examine associated changes in neural processing by functional magnetic resonance imaging. MIT improved language output and auditory comprehension, and decreased the response time for picture naming. Following MIT-J, an area of the right hemisphere was less activated on correct naming trials than compared with before training but similarly activated on incorrect trials. These results suggest that the aphasic symptoms of our patient were improved by increased neural processing efficiency and a concomitant decrease in cognitive load.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dementia Prevention and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Mie, Japan; Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Mie, Japan.
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Tabei
authors.affiliation: Department of Dementia Prevention and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Dementia Prevention and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Chizuru
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Ai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation, Suzuka Central General Hospital , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimoji
authors.affiliation: Department of Dementia Prevention and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Hirotaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kida
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University , Mie , Japan.
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakuma
authors.affiliation: Department of Dementia Prevention and Therapeutics, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Mie, Japan; Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Mie, Japan.
authors.forename: Hidekazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tomimoto
keywords: Japanese version of MIT; Western Aphasia Battery; aphasia; functional magnetic resonance imaging; neural efficiency theory; prosody