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Training with cognitive sequences improves syntactic comprehension in agrammatic aphasics
Michel Hoen1, Myriam Golembiowski, Emmanuelle Guyot
1Sequential Cognition and Language Group, Institut de Sciences Cognitives, Cedex, France.
Neuroreport
|March 14, 2003
Summary
Cognitive neuroscience research indicates language processing may share neural resources with non-linguistic tasks. Sequence training improved syntactic comprehension in aphasic patients, suggesting language is not entirely modular.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroscience of Language
Background:
- The modularity of language is a key question in cognitive neuroscience.
- If language relies on non-specific neural processes, training in non-linguistic domains should transfer to language learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether non-linguistic cognitive sequence training can improve syntactic comprehension in aphasic patients.
- To determine if improvements in non-linguistic processing transfer to specific types of linguistic structures.
Main Methods:
- Six left-hemisphere damaged aphasic patients underwent 10 weeks of non-linguistic sequence processing training.
- Training involved a transformational rule mirroring that used in understanding relativised sentences.
- Syntactic comprehension was assessed before and after the training period.
Main Results:
- Non-linguistic sequence processing significantly improved with training.
- A significant transfer of improvement was observed specifically for relativised sentences.
- No significant transfer was found for active or passive sentences.
Conclusions:
- Language processing, particularly syntactic comprehension, may rely on non-language-specific neural and functional processes.
- The specificity of the transfer suggests a shared neural basis between certain non-linguistic cognitive tasks and language comprehension.