Benefits and Limitations of Computer Gesture Therapy for the Rehabilitation of Severe Aphasia

Abstract

Aphasia intervention has made increasing use of technology in recent years. The evidence base, which is largely limited to the investigation of spoken language outcomes, indicates positive treatment effects for people with mild to moderate levels of aphasia. Outcomes for those with severe aphasia, however, are less well documented and – where reported – present less consistent gains for measures of spoken output. This study investigates the effects of a purpose-built gesture therapy technology for people with severe aphasia: GeST+. Study outcomes show significant improvement in gesture production abilities for adults with severe aphasia following computer intervention. They indicate no transfer of effects into naming gains or interactive gesture. Outcomes offer encouraging results for computer therapy methods within this hitherto under-researched population but indicate a need for further refinement of interventions in order to maximize persistence of effects and generalization into everyday communication.

Implicit and explicit learning in reactive and voluntary saccade adaptation

“…Specifically, both explicit learning [22,24,39–42], working memory and attention [43–45], and the generation of voluntary saccades [46–50] depend on contributions from a ‘dorsal attention network’ [45] of (pre)frontal-parietal regions (most notably the frontal eye fields and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Although the neural site of adaptation (rather than generation) of reactive and scanning saccades remains an active area of investigation [3,51–54], a recent study suggested that the adaptation of voluntary compared to reactive saccades places larger demands on the dorsal- compared to the ventral attention network [55]. In sum, this suggests that the demand for cognitive resources required by both voluntary saccades and explicit learning can be viewed in terms of competition for neural resources, most likely in the dorsal attention network.…”

Empowering Expression for Users with Aphasia through Constrained Creativity

“…Other work seeks to support more practical activities such as cooking [45]. Accessible digital technologies have also enabled rehabilitative therapy for improving gestures [41] and spoken language [16,26]. Contrasting work has sought to classify aphasic language input computationally [15].…”

Usability Testing - An Aphasia Perspective

“…I have worked with lots of people who have aphasia using technology. With demonstration and practice, they have all been able to achieve some level of independent use of specifically-designed therapy technology [8,11,12]. However, many of them report that they cannot achieve this level of access to mainstream technologies -even for technologies that they were highly skilled at using prior to the onset of their aphasia.…”