The involvement of mora segmentation skills in the auditory comprehension process of aphasic patients

Abstract

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess the involvement of mora segmentation skills in the auditory comprehension process of aphasic patients. Methods: Several tests, such as an auditory word comprehension test, a mora segmentation test (using meaningful and meaningless words), speech discrimination test, and verbal short-term memory test, were conducted in 28 patients with aphasia, owing to left hemisphere brain damage, who had agreed to participate in the study. Results: There was no signifi cant relationship between mora segmentation skills for meaningful words and auditory comprehension (F = 0.72, p = 0.407). When mora types were analyzed separately for comparative purposes, a signifi cant relationship between auditory comprehension and mora segmentation skills for meaningful words, including only a single-kana sound, was observed (F = 7.50, p < 0.05). However, such a relationship was not observed with words that include the sound of kana "n." There was no signifi cant difference between meaningful words and meaningless words in terms of the relationship between mora segmentation skills and auditory comprehension (total correct answers for meaningless words: F = 0.03, p = 0.857; meaningless words containing only single-kana sounds: F = 4.40, p < 0.05). Conclusions:The results suggest that phoneme segmentation assists phonological perception during the process of auditory word comprehension. Furthermore, it is conceivable that the segmentation unit involved in this process is a syllable, rather than a mora; however, this possibility requires further study.