CT scan lesion localization and response to melodic intonation therapy with nonfluent aphasia cases

The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the relationship between CT scan lesion localization and good or poor response to Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) as measured by pre- and post-MIT treatment scores. The four good response (GR) cases improved in speech characteristics ratings for Phrase Length and Grammatical Form on the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination; the four poor response (PR) cases showed no improvement. The GR cases had lesions which involved Broca's area and/or white matter deep to it plus large superior lesion extension into periventricular white matter deep to the lower motor cortex area for face. These GR cases had no large lesion in Wernicke's area and no lesion in the temporal isthmus or the right hemisphere. The PR cases, however, had bi-lateral lesions or lesion including Wernicke's area or the temporal isthmus.