Human cognitive neuroscience seminar

Speaker: Junhua Ding (University of Edinburgh)

Title: A new classification of connected speech in stroke aphasia

Abstract: Connected speech deficit commonly happens for patients with stroke aphasia, which has a largely negative influence on their social participation and life quality. A better classification could help individualize treatment plans. However, nowadays, connected speech classification still relies on one single coarse dimension, such as speech fluency or aphasia severity. Structural (syntactic) and functional (informativeness) impairments of connected speech are two typical aspects of aphasia studies. Here, we aimed to use these two specific dimensions to better classify aphasic speech samples. Moreover, even though these two aspects have their own neural substrates, they sometimes interact with each other due to strategy changes for better communication. So, we further explored the mechanism behind the structural and functional differences of aphasia patients.