Hinchliffe F J, Murdoch B E, Chenery H J
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Brain Inj. 1998 Feb;12(2):109-32. doi: 10.1080/026990598122746.
Language deficits following closed-head injury (CHI) are widely considered as impairments secondary to the cognitive disruptions common to closed-head injury. In addition, the use of standardized measures to assess the functioning of the language system in closed-head injury has mostly been limited to aphasia test batteries which examine primary language functions only. This has resulted in generalizations as to the integrity of the language system following closed-head injury, and as a consequence, consideration of the contribution of the language system to the achievement of communicative competence in this population has been minimized. This paper presents a framework in which the functional language system is identified as a hierarchical system containing primary and higher-order language processes involved in reciprocal relationships with cognitive functions at each level. A group of 25 closed-head injury subjects and 23 demographically matched control subjects were examined for linguistic proficiency using a battery of standardized tests which investigated the language system across a hierarchy of complexity, structure and predictability. In addition, 23 of the closed-head subjects were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery in order to determine the nature and extent of concomitant impairments in cognitive processes and their relationship with impairments in the language system. The language battery was found to consistently discriminate between the control and clinical groups indicating that the linguistic system is significantly impaired following CHI, with the lexical-semantic system being the most vulnerable to disruption. A strong influential relationship between language and cognitive processes was statistically confirmed and the nature of the relationship between aspects of language and cognition further delineated.
闭合性颅脑损伤（CHI）后的语言缺陷被广泛认为是继发于闭合性颅脑损伤常见的认知紊乱的损伤。此外，在闭合性颅脑损伤中使用标准化测量方法来评估语言系统功能，大多局限于仅检查主要语言功能的失语症测试组。这导致了对闭合性颅脑损伤后语言系统完整性的一概而论，结果，语言系统对该人群实现交际能力的贡献的考量被最小化。本文提出了一个框架，其中功能性语言系统被确定为一个层次系统，包含与各级认知功能呈相互关系的主要和高阶语言过程。使用一组标准化测试对25名闭合性颅脑损伤受试者和23名人口统计学匹配的对照受试者进行语言能力测试，这些测试在复杂性、结构和可预测性的层次上对语言系统进行了研究。此外，对23名闭合性颅脑损伤受试者进行了全面的神经心理测试组，以确定认知过程中伴随损伤的性质和程度及其与语言系统损伤的关系。发现语言测试组能够持续区分对照组和临床组，表明闭合性颅脑损伤后语言系统明显受损，词汇语义系统最容易受到破坏。语言与认知过程之间的强影响关系得到了统计学证实，并且进一步描绘了语言与认知各方面之间关系的性质。
