ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The goal of the study was to measure regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) in a stroke patient with acquired phonologic alexia before and after therapy using the Auditory Discrimination in Depth (ADD) program. BACKGROUND: After rehabilitation of acquired language disorders, functional imaging can detect activity in brain structures that do not mediate language during normal conditions. However, the anatomic correlates of recovery or rehabilitation from acquired reading disorders are largely undescribed. METHODS: Cerebral SPECT scans were obtained before and after the intervention with Auditory Discrimination in Depth. The first and last activation tasks necessitated that the patient read nonwords during radionuclide uptake. Another (control) scan was acquired during performance of a nonlinguistic task shortly before the end of the ADD program. RESULTS: Before therapy, the right hemisphere was inactive during nonword reading relative to the nonlinguistic task. After treatment, nonword reading increased cerebral blood flow in the posterior right perisylvian cortices homologous to the dominant hemisphere areas engaged by reading. Brain activity also increased in Broca's area of both hemispheres. CONCLUSIONS: Dyslexia rehabilitation may facilitate right-hemisphere cortical networks in the reading process and increase engagement of phonologic articulatory motor representations in Broca's area.
Subject(s)
Dyslexia/rehabilitation , Reading , Stroke Rehabilitation , Dyslexia/diagnosis , Dyslexia/etiology , Frontal Lobe/diagnostic imaging , Frontal Lobe/pathology , Frontal Lobe/physiopathology , Humans , Language Tests , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Middle Aged , Occipital Lobe/diagnostic imaging , Occipital Lobe/pathology , Occipital Lobe/physiopathology , Parietal Lobe/diagnostic imaging , Parietal Lobe/pathology , Parietal Lobe/physiopathology , Stroke/complications , Stroke/diagnosis , Temporal Lobe/diagnostic imaging , Temporal Lobe/pathology , Temporal Lobe/physiopathology , Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon , Treatment Outcome , Verbal BehaviorABSTRACT
The goal of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Auditory Discrimination in Depth Program (ADD) in remediating the analytic decoding deficits of a group of severe dyslexics. A group of ten severely dyslexic students ranging in age from 93 to 154 months were treated in a clinic setting for 38 to 124 hours (average of 65 hours). Pre- and post-treatment testing was done with the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test and the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization to assess changes in phonological awareness and analytic decoding skills. Results revealed statistically significant gains in phonological awareness and analytic decoding skills.
