A study of the mechanisms of recovery from aphasia by speech-activated SPECT brain imaging / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the mechanisms of recovery from aphasia by using speech-activated single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)brain imaging.Methods The SPECT brain imaging of 7 aphasic patients caused by various brain disorders were performed while they were at rest and performing oral reading,respec- tively,with an one-day interval.A semi-quantitative analysis of regional cerebral blood flow(rCBF)was conducted using region of interesting(ROI).The change of rCBF before and after reading was calculated and compared to ana- lyze the role of both hemispheres in the recovery from aphasia.Results It was found that the activation pattern of brain region was associated with the speech performance of the patients.The activated brain regions were mainly loca- ted at the left hemisphere in 5 patients whose reading capacity was relatively better,and mainly at the right hemi- sphere in the other 2 patients who had poor performance in reading.Conclusion After a focal lesion of the left hemisphere,the recovery of speech function might be mainly attributed to the repair of the damaged left hemisphere language network.When the left-hemispheric centers were permanently impaired,the brain would recruit some right- hemisphere regions for speech processing,but this strategy was less effective than the repair of the original speech-rel- evant network.