• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.87-97
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study is to analyze the speech duration in Korean-speaking aphasics. Five patients with nonfluent aphasia (2 with traumatic brain injury and 3 with strokes) and five normal adults participated in this experiment. The mean age in patients with nonfluent aphasia was $45.8\pm2.3$ years and $47.4\pm2.3$ years for the normal adults. The Computerized Speech Lab was used to evaluate the acoustic characteristics of the subjects. Voice onset time, vowel duration, total duration, hold and consonant duration were evaluated for the monosyllabic and the polysyllabic words. The patients with nonfluent aphasia did not show the voicing bar on hold area, however, it was seen in the normal persons in the intervocalic position. Explosion duration of glottalized stops in the intervocalic position was significantly prolonged in nonfluent aphasics in comparison with the normal persons. This suggestes that the laryngeal adjustment is disturbed in these patients. Consonant duration, vowel duration, and total duration of the polysyllabic words were significantly longer in the patients with nonfluent aphasia than those of the normal persons. These results demonstrate the disturbances in controlling articulatory muscles during sound production in patients with nonfluent aphasia. The objective and quantitative analysis based on the acoustic characteristics of nonfluent aphasics, will be very useful in therapeutic planning and on the the effects of speech therapy.

• Dementia and Neurocognitive Disorders
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.110-119
• /
• 2018

Background and Purpose: To analyze $^{18}F-THK5351$ positron emission tomography (PET) scans of patients with clinically diagnosed nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia (navPPA). Methods: Thirty-one participants, including those with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=13), navPPA (n=3), and those with normal control (NC, n=15) who completed 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging, $^{18}F-THK5351$ PET scans, and detailed neuropsychological tests, were included. Voxel-based and region of interest (ROI)-based analyses were performed to evaluate retention of $^{18}F-THK5351$ in navPPA patients. Results: In ROI-based analysis, patients with navPPA had higher levels of THK retention in the Broca's area, bilateral inferior frontal lobes, bilateral precentral gyri, and bilateral basal ganglia. Patients with navPPA showed higher levels of THK retention in bilateral frontal lobes (mainly left side) compared than NC in voxel-wise analysis. Conclusions: In our study, THK retention in navPPA patients was mainly distributed at the frontal region which was well correlated with functional-radiological distribution of navPPA. Our results suggest that tau PET imaging could be a supportive tool for diagnosis of navPPA in combination with a clinical history.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.69-79
• /
• 2016

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a degenerative disease characterized by the selective frontal and temporal lobe atrophy, and progressive deficits in behavior, executive function, or language. The prevalence and incidence of FTD are 15-22/100000 and 2.7-4.1/100000, respectively, in midlife. Hereditary is an important risk factor for FTD. Although there is some controversy regarding the further syndromatic subdivision of the different types of FTD, FTD is clinically classified into behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia and progressive nonfluent aphasia. FTD can be misdiagnosed as many psychiatric disorders because of similarity of the prominent behavioral features. Advances in clinical, imaging, and molecular characterization have increased the accuracy of FTD diagnosis, thus developing for the accurate differentiation of these syndromes from psychiatric disorders. We also discuss about therapeutic strategies for symptom management of FTD. Medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, and other novel treatments have been used in FTD with various rates of success. Further advanced research should be directed at understanding and developing new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities to improve the FTD patients' prognosis and quality of life.

• 재활복지
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.171-188
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of three conditions-words frequency, word length, and animacy-on the performance of naming in nonfluent aphasic patients. 15 nonfluent aphasic patients and 15 normal adults were participated in this study. The words consist only of concrete nouns and confrontational naming test was used. The test consisted of 40 questions and the condition of word were frequency(low-frequency/high-frequency), length(1 syllable/3 syllables) and animacy(animate/inanimate). The result of the study was as follows. First, naming was performed better with high-frequency words than with low-frequency words in both groups. Second, naming was performed better with 1 syllable words than with 3 syllable words in both groups. Third, naming performance depending on animacy did not show significant differences in both groups. These results indicate that compared to animacy of word, word frequency and length have bigger influence on the naming, and the difference by word frequency was more pronounced for nonfluent aphasic patients than for normal adults. The results of this study suggest that target word for the assessment and intervention of nonfluent aphasic patients, words frequency should be considered first in clinical setting.

• Speech Sciences
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.91-102
• /
• 1998

The present study attempted to modify the conventional Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) in three aspects: number of syllables of adjacent target utterances (ATU), melody patterns of ATU, and initial listening of melody and intoned speech with the eyes closed. The modified Melodic Intonation Therapy (MMIT) was applied to two severe Korean aphasics. The patients exhibited a severely nonfluent aphasia resulting from a left CVA(Cerebrovascular Accident). The purpose of the modification was to avoid perseveration and improve reflective listening skills. First, the treatment program avoided ATU with the same number of syllables. Second, four different patterns of melody were developed: rising type, falling type, V-type, and inverted V-type. One type of prosodic pattern was preceded and followed by another type of melody. These two variations were to decrease perseverative behaviors. Finally, the patients kept their eyes closed when the clinician played and hummed a target melody at the initial stage of the program in order to improve reflective listening skills. A single-subject alternating treatment design was used. The effects of MMIT were compared to the conventional MIT. Differing the number of syllables and the type of melodic patterns decreased perseverative behaviors and produced more correct names. The initial listening of the target melody with the patients' eyes closed seemed to increase their attentiveness and result in a more fluent production of target utterances. Probable reasons for the effectiveness of MMIT were discussed.