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Between-session and within-session intra-individual variability in attention in aphasia
1Aphasia Research Laboratory Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Neuropsychologia
|December 11, 2017
Summary
Persons with aphasia show greater within-session attention variability than controls. Task demands, especially linguistic ones, increase this variability in people with aphasia, impacting treatment outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Speech and Language Pathology
Background:
- Individuals with aphasia (PWA) often exhibit attention processing deficits.
- PWA may also display heightened intra-individual variability in attention over time.
- Previous research suggests attention impairments in PWA, even in non-linguistic tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically examine between-session intra-individual variability (BS-IIV) and within-session intra-individual variability (WS-IIV) in attention in PWA.
- To investigate the impact of varying task demands on these attention variability measures.
- To explore the influence of linguistic versus non-linguistic task demands on attention variability in PWA.
Main Methods:
- Administered five novel attention tasks (three non-linguistic, two linguistic) with diverse processing demands.
- Included 20 individuals with aphasia (PWA) and 20 age-matched healthy controls.
- Measured both between-session (BS-IIV) and within-session (WS-IIV) attention variability.
Main Results:
- PWA demonstrated significantly higher WS-IIV compared to controls.
- BS-IIV levels were comparable between PWA and controls.
- Increased task demands elevated BS-IIV and WS-IIV in both groups.
- Linguistic task demands appeared to further increase WS-IIV and BS-IIV specifically in PWA.
- Substantial inter-individual variability in BS-IIV and WS-IIV was noted within the PWA group.
Conclusions:
- PWA exhibit distinct patterns of attentional variability, particularly higher within-session fluctuations.
- Task demands significantly influence attention variability, with language processing potentially exacerbating these fluctuations in PWA.
- Findings highlight the importance of considering attentional variability in PWA for understanding language deficits and optimizing treatment outcomes.
