Nonlinguistic Cognitive Functions of Mandarin Speakers With Poststroke Aphasia

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive functions of Mandarin speakers with poststroke aphasia and to investigate the relationship between nonlinguistic cognitive deficits and the severity of aphasia.

Twenty-three adults with aphasia resulting from left-hemispheric stroke and 23 adults matched for age and educational level completed a series of six nonlinguistic cognitive tests measuring nonverbal intelligence, short-term memory, visual selective attention, visual alternating attention, auditory selective attention, and auditory alternating attention. A standardized aphasia assessment (Concise Chinese Aphasia Test [CCAT]) was also conducted to evaluate the severity of aphasia. Data analyses examined cognitive functions by comparing task performance of the two groups and examining the relationship between scores on the cognitive tasks and aphasia severity based on a hierarchical regression analysis.

The aphasia group scored significantly lower than the control group on all nonlinguistic cognitive tasks with large effect sizes (d = 0.95 ~ 1.54). Significant associations between different nonlinguistic cognitive tasks and CCAT subtests were observed. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis showed that auditory alternating attention was the only factor that significantly predicted aphasia severity based on CCAT overall scores after age and education level were taken into account.

The findings align with prior research observing deficits in nonlinguistic cognition in individuals with aphasia. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.