Effects of two treatments for aprosodia secondary to acquired brain injury

Expressive aprosodia is an impaired ability to change one's voice to express common emotions such as joy, anger, and sadness. Individuals with aprosodia speak in a flat, unemotional voice that often results in miscommunicated emotional messages. This study investigated two conceptually based treatments for expressive aprosodia: imitative treatment and cognitive-linguistic treatment. Five women and nine men with expressive aprosodia following right-hemisphere brain damage received the treatments in two phases 1 month apart in random order. Treatment was received 3 to 4 days a week for a total of 20 sessions each phase. As the outcome measure, sentences that elicited treated (happy, angry, sad, neutral) and untreated (fear) emotional tones of voice were administered during baseline, prior to treatment sessions, following treatment termination, and at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. Effect sizes indicated that treatment effects were modest to substantial and that 12 participants responded to at least one treatment. Four responsive participants who were available for follow-up showed benefit at 1 and 3 months posttreatment. Most visual and statistical analyses were congruent.