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Narrative and procedural discourse after closed head injury
1Galveston Institute of Human Communication, Transitional Learning Community, TX 77553.
Brain Injury
|July 1, 1991
Summary
Closed head injury (CHI) affects discourse, leading to reduced productivity and cohesion in adults. CHI patients show less variation in communication tasks compared to healthy individuals.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Linguistics
- Psychology
Background:
- Closed head injury (CHI) can impact cognitive and communicative functions.
- Understanding discourse deficits is crucial for rehabilitation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine discourse differences in closed head-injured (CHI) adults versus normal adults.
- To analyze productivity, content, and cohesion in narrative and procedural discourse.
Main Methods:
- Administered narrative (story retelling, comic strip formulation) and procedural (grocery shopping) tasks.
- Compared discourse measures (word count, fluency, content units, cohesive ties) between CHI and normal groups.
- Assessed task-specific variations in discourse performance.
Main Results:
- CHI subjects produced fewer words, spoke slower, and used more dysfluencies.
- CHI participants generated fewer content units and cohesive ties per utterance.
- Normal subjects adapted discourse strategies across tasks; CHI subjects showed limited adaptation.
Conclusions:
- CHI significantly impairs narrative and procedural discourse productivity and cohesion.
- Discourse analysis offers valuable insights for clinical assessment and theoretical understanding of CHI.
- Limited task-specific variation in CHI discourse suggests broader cognitive control deficits.