Keywords

aphasia, attention, arousal, naming, stroke

Abstract

Purpose: To (a) compare physiological arousal and attentiveness during a confrontational naming task between participants with aphasia and a control group across four conditions that varied according to emotionality of presented stimuli and (b) explore relationships among physiological arousal, attentiveness, perceived arousal, and naming performance. We hypothesized that participants with aphasia would show lower levels of arousal and attentiveness than control participants and that emotional conditions would lead to increased physiological arousal and attentiveness.

Method: Eight participants with aphasia and 15 control participants completed a confrontational naming task under positive, negative, and neutral conditions and rated their perceived arousal after each. Electrophysiological recordings were taken during the entire experiment to obtain measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, and skin conductance. Videos of confrontational naming trials were rated based on visual signs of participant attentiveness during each trial.

Results: Statistically significant group differences were found for heart rate, skin conductance, and attentiveness ratings but no differences were found in these measures among conditions. Correlational analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between attentiveness and response time, heart rate, and naming accuracy. Significant correlations were also found for heart rate and naming accuracy as well as perceived arousal and naming accuracy.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that decreased physiological arousal or attentiveness may contribute to naming deficits for people with aphasia. Assisting people with aphasia to fully attend to and engage in therapy tasks may be important for accurate assessment of language functions and for achieving optimal benefit in treatment.

Original Publication Citation

11. Harmon, T. G., Johnson, A.**, Ward, V.**, Nissen, S. L. (2023). Physiological arousal, attentiveness, emotion, and word retrieval in aphasia: Effects and relationships. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32(5S), 2554-2564. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00305

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2023-10-17

Publisher

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Communication Disorders

University Standing at Time of Publication

Assistant Professor

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