Redefining Recovery from Aphasia

This book focuses on two fundamental aspects of brain-language relations: one concerns the neural organization of language in the healthy brain; the other challenges current approaches to treatment of aphasia and offers a new theory for recovery from aphasia. The essence of the book lies in the phrase neural multifunctionality: the constant and dynamic incorporation of non-linguistic functions into language models of the intact brain. The book makes the claim that language is a construction, created as we use it, and cannot be understood as being supported by neurally based linguistic networks only. Rather, language emerges from the constant and dynamic interaction among neural networks subserving cognitive, affective, and praxic functions with neural networks subserving lexical retrieval (naming), sentence processing (comprehension), and discourse (communication, conversation). In persons with stroke-induced aphasia, neural networks for executive system function, attention, memory, motor system function, visual system function, and emotion interact with neural networks for language to produce the aphasia profile and to influence recovery from aphasia. Consequently, neural multifunctionality in aphasia explains individual differences in the lesion-deficit model and continued recovery over time, redefining the concept of recovery from aphasia and offering new opportunities for treatment.

About the Author :
Dalia Cahana-Amitay Research Assistant Professor Of Neurology Associate Director, Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center And Language In The Aging Brain Boston University School Of Medicine Va Boston Healthcare System Boston, MA Martin Albert Professor Of Neurology Director, Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center Boston University School Of Medicine Va Boston Healthcare System Boston, MA

Review :
"Aphasia, an impairment of propositional language caused by brain dysfunction, is one of the most common and disabling disorders afflicting humans. This important book, written by two world renowned aphasiologists, makes a paradigmatic shift. These authors address aphasic disorders and recovery by examining nonlinguistic neurobehavioral factors, such as emotions, praxis, and executive functions. These nonlinguistic functions are mediated by functional networks that are independent, but strongly interconnected with the primary language areas and thus play an import role in supporting recovery and adaptation. This important book is critical reading for those clinicians, educators and investigators who deal with people who are suffering with aphasia." -- Kenneth M Heilman, MD, The James E. Rooks Jr. Distinguished Professor of Neurology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville "Redefining Recovery from Aphasia is a unique book, tying information from speech/language pathology, neurology, neurolinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience in general into a unified approach to recovery from aphasia. The disparate strands of information which these authors bring together not only illuminate the process of recovery from stroke or brain injury causing aphasia, but also provide insight into new approaches to aphasia rehabilitation. The key concept is "multifunctionality", how the language cortex can recover, with help from structures in the brain more specialized in functions such as attention, short-term and long-term memory, executive function, emotion, praxis, and visual processing. The book should be of interest to all who deal with patients with aphasia, including physiatrists, neurologists, speech/language pathologists, neuropsychologists, and linguists." Howard Kirshner, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Neurology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center "Cahana-Amitay and Albert are experienced aphasiologists at the Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center of Boston University and the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center. The authors provide a comprehensive landscape of language and the brain based on functional neuroanatomic theories that have been evolving over the past two decades. The authoritative voice of these authors compels us to reconsider classic approaches to aphasia, and develop novel forms of speech therapy that are organized around the prinicple of multifunctionality." --World Neurology "Overall, the writing in these chapters is clear and engaging, the organization is logical, and the authors bring together research from a wide array of disciplines, providing an impressive number of key references that should satisfy those wishing to dive deeper into any given topic. Moreover, these chapters are written to be accessible to readers with a range of backgrounds." --Cognitive Behavioral Neurology "The authors' multifunctional viewpoint makes this book a pleasant and informative read; not only for speech and language therapists, but also for everyone with scientific interests ranging from neuropsychology and behavioural neurology to speech and language pathology." --Aphasiology