Peñaloza Claudia, Barrett Katherine, Kiran Swathi
Aphasia Research Laboratory, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Aphasiology. 2020;34(10):1223-1240. doi: 10.1080/02687038.2019.1666082. Epub 2019 Sep 13.
Bilingual persons with aphasia (BWA) may present different degrees and patterns of impairment in their two languages. Previous research suggests that prestroke proficiency may be amongst the factors determining poststroke language impairment in BWA, however this relationship is not well understood.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between prestroke proficiency and poststroke lexical-semantic performance in BWA and to identify common patterns of language impairment in this population.
Twenty-seven Spanish-English BWA (14 female, age range = 29-88 years) were administered a language use questionnaire (LUQ) to measure several aspects of their bilingual language history that contribute to their prestroke proficiency in both languages. They also underwent standardized language assessments tapping lexical-semantic performance in each language. A principal component analysis was first conducted on the LUQ metrics to determine the factors that contributed to prestroke proficiency in each language. Next, regression analyses allowed assessing the relationships between prestroke proficiency and poststroke lexical-semantic performance in both languages. Differences in proficiency and language performance across languages were contrasted prior and after stroke to identify profiles of impairment.
Prestroke proficiency in the native language was determined by daily use, educational history, lifetime exposure, and language ability rating. Prestroke proficiency in the second language was determined by age of acquisition, daily use, educational history, lifetime exposure, lifetime confidence, family proficiency, and language ability rating. Prestroke proficiency significantly predicted poststroke lexical-semantic performance in BWA in both languages. Twenty-two participants presented parallel impairment while only three presented differential impairment.
Our results confirm that prestroke language proficiency is a key predictor of poststroke language impairment in BWA. These findings have important implications for the assessment and diagnosis of aphasia in bilingual individuals.
患有失语症的双语者（BWA）在其两种语言中可能表现出不同程度和模式的损伤。先前的研究表明，中风前的语言熟练程度可能是决定BWA中风后语言损伤的因素之一，然而这种关系尚未得到充分理解。
本研究的目的是探讨BWA中风前语言熟练程度与中风后词汇语义表现之间的关系，并确定该人群中常见的语言损伤模式。
对27名西班牙语-英语双语失语症患者（14名女性，年龄范围 = 29 - 88岁）进行语言使用问卷（LUQ）测试，以衡量其双语语言历史的几个方面，这些方面有助于他们在两种语言中的中风前熟练程度。他们还接受了标准化语言评估，以评估每种语言的词汇语义表现。首先对LUQ指标进行主成分分析，以确定影响每种语言中风前熟练程度的因素。接下来，进行回归分析，以评估两种语言中风前熟练程度与中风后词汇语义表现之间的关系。对比中风前后两种语言的熟练程度和语言表现差异，以确定损伤特征。
母语的中风前熟练程度由日常使用、教育史、终生接触和语言能力评级决定。第二语言的中风前熟练程度由习得年龄、日常使用、教育史、终生接触、终生信心、家庭熟练程度和语言能力评级决定。中风前熟练程度显著预测了BWA在两种语言中的中风后词汇语义表现。22名参与者表现出平行损伤，而只有3名表现出差异损伤。
我们的结果证实，中风前语言熟练程度是BWA中风后语言损伤的关键预测因素。这些发现对双语个体失语症的评估和诊断具有重要意义。
