Aphasia therapy early after stroke : behavioural and neurophysiological changes in the acute and post-acute phases

Background: There is reasonable evidence to suggest that speech and language therapy can be effective in the chronic stages of stroke recovery. However, the active ingredients remain unknown and several variables can influence therapy outcome, such as content, type, and amount of therapy. Neurophysiological measures, event-related brain potentials such as the N400 and P300, have shown to be sensitive markers of therapeutic effects. As a supplement to the usual behavioural evaluation methods, neurophysiological measures might help to further disentangle the effect of content, type, and/or amount of therapy.Aims: The present single case study aims to investigate the effect of language therapy by combining behavioural and neurophysiological outcome measures in a patient with aphasia during the acute and post-acute stage after stroke. By further subdividing the therapy period into different therapy blocks, possible influences of content, type, and/or amount of therapy are investigated.Methods & Procedures: RL...