Verb production tasks in the measurement of communicative abilities in aphasia

Background: The neurofunctional correlates of verbs and nouns have been the focus of many theoretically oriented studies. In clinical practice, however, more attention is typically paid to nouns, and the relative usefulness of tasks probing nouns and verbs is unclear. The routine administration of tasks that use verbs could be a relevant addition to current batteries. Evaluating performance on both noun and verb tasks may provide a more reliable account of everyday language abilities than an evaluation restricted to nouns. Aims: To assess the benefits of administering verb tasks in addition to noun tasks, and their relation to three functional measures of language. Method and procedure: Twenty-one subjects with poststroke language disorders completed four picture-naming tasks and a role-playing test (Communicative Abilities in Daily Living, Second Edition, CADL–2), commonly used as measure of everyday language abilities. Two questionnaires (Communicative Effectiveness Index, CETI, and Communicative Activi...