Robinson Gail A, Shi Lucy, Nott Zoie, Ceslis Amelia
Neuropsychology Research Unit, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
Brain Sci. 2021 Mar 10;11(3):353. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11030353.
Aphasia assessment tools have primarily focused on classical aphasia type and severity, with minimal incorporation of recent findings that suggest a significant role of executive control operations in language generation. Assessment of the interface between language and executive functions is needed to improve detection of spontaneous speech difficulties. In this study we develop a new (BELS), a brief tool specifically designed to assess core language and executive functions shown to be involved in spontaneous generation of language. Similar to other measures of aphasia, the BELS assesses articulation and core language skills (repetition, naming and comprehension). Unique additions to the BELS include assessments of spontaneous connected speech, word fluency (phonemic/semantic) and sentence completion (verbal initiation, inhibition and selection). One-hundred and eight healthy controls and 136 stroke patients were recruited. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine construct validity and logistic regression was used to evaluate the discriminative validity, informing the final version of the BELS. The results showed that the BELS is sensitive for articulation and nominal language deficits, and it measures executive aspects of spontaneous language generation, which is a hallmark of frontal dynamic aphasia. The results have encouraging theoretical and practical implications.
失语症评估工具主要关注经典失语症类型和严重程度，很少纳入近期的研究结果，这些结果表明执行控制操作在语言生成中起着重要作用。需要评估语言与执行功能之间的接口，以改善对自发言语困难的检测。在本研究中，我们开发了一种新的（BELS），这是一种专门设计用于评估核心语言和执行功能的简短工具，这些功能被证明与语言的自发生成有关。与其他失语症测量方法类似，BELS评估发音和核心语言技能（重复、命名和理解）。BELS的独特之处包括对自发连贯言语、单词流畅性（音素/语义）和句子完成（言语启动、抑制和选择）的评估。招募了108名健康对照者和136名中风患者。使用验证性因素分析来确定结构效度，并使用逻辑回归来评估判别效度，从而形成BELS的最终版本。结果表明，BELS对发音和命名性语言缺陷敏感，并且它测量了自发语言生成的执行方面，这是额叶动态失语症的一个标志。这些结果具有令人鼓舞的理论和实践意义。
