Department of Neurology, Air Force General Hospital, Beijing, China.
Chin Med J (Engl). 2009 Aug 20;122(16):1901-6.
Chinese nonfluent aphasic patients experience apparent speech production deficit, but it remains less known in which part of Chinese speech production this deficit occurs. The present study aimed to examine the ability of nonfluent aphasic patients in Chinese orthography, phonological and semantic processing via two experiments. Experiment I disclosed the general pattern of deficit of Chinese nonfluent aphasic patients in speech production. Experiment II tested whether this deficit occurs in orthography, phonological or semantic processing.
The present study adopted neuropsychological testing methods to compare speech production and Chinese word processing between nonfluent aphasic patients (the patient group) and normal individuals (the control group). Character reading and word reading tasks were used to test speech production. Chinese radical decision, rhyme decision and semantic decision tasks were used to examine word processing. Reaction time and the correct answer rate were collected.
The patient group had a longer reaction time and was more prone to errors in both character reading and word reading tasks than was the control group. For the patient group, there was no difference between the reaction time of character reading and word reading, the error rate of the former was higher than the latter. In radical decision task the reaction time and error rate to the radical "mu " were higher in the patient group than in the control group. In the rhyme decision task, the reaction time and error rate to the rhyme "ang" were higher for the aphasic patients. In the semantic decision task the reaction time to characters in the category of animals was higher for the aphasic patients, yet the error rate was not significantly different between the two groups.
Nonfluent aphasic patients seemingly have decreased speed of speech production and an increased error rate. There is a deficit in phonological processing of aphasic patients while their semantic processing may remain intact.
汉语非流利型失语症患者表现出明显的言语产生缺陷，但对于这种缺陷在汉语言语产生的哪个环节发生，目前还知之甚少。本研究旨在通过两个实验来检验非流利型失语症患者在汉语正字法、语音和语义加工方面的能力。实验一揭示了非流利型失语症患者在言语产生方面的整体缺陷模式。实验二检验了这种缺陷是否发生在正字法、语音或语义加工中。
本研究采用神经心理学测试方法，比较非流利型失语症患者（患者组）和正常个体（对照组）在言语产生和汉字处理方面的差异。采用字符阅读和单词阅读任务来测试言语产生，采用汉字部首判断、韵母判断和语义判断任务来检验汉字处理。收集反应时间和正确回答率。
与对照组相比，患者组在字符阅读和单词阅读任务中的反应时间更长，错误率更高。对于患者组，字符阅读和单词阅读的反应时间没有差异，前者的错误率高于后者。在部首判断任务中，患者组对部首“母”的反应时间和错误率均高于对照组。在韵母判断任务中，患者组对韵母“昂”的反应时间和错误率更高。在语义判断任务中，患者组对动物类汉字的反应时间更高，但两组之间的错误率没有显著差异。
非流利型失语症患者的言语产生速度似乎较慢，错误率较高。患者在语音加工方面存在缺陷，而语义加工可能保持完整。
