Motor evoked potential of upper-limbs is predictive of aphasia recovery

ABSTRACTBackground: Recovery from aphasia impacts the quality of life in stroke patients but remains difficult to predict. Some neuroanatomical factors combined with anagraphical factors contribute to the prediction of longitudinal outcomes, but still fail to predict changes in severity of symptoms. Among the language features predicting recovery from aphasia, production scores such as repetition or phonology seem to be more relevant predictors than only severity. As motor cortex is strongly involved in language processes, both production and perception, the present study builds on the hypothesis that assessment of the anatomo-functional motor pathways could improve predictive models on top of factors based on neuroanatomy.Aim: In this prospective longitudinal study, we aimed to determine whether the integration of an electrophysiological measure of the motor network using Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) with an anatomical approach—diffusion-weighted MRI— in the acute phase of stroke can improve the predic...