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Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (2006), 12: 132-146 Cambridge University Press
Copyright © 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society
doi:10.1017/S135561770606019X
Published online by Cambridge University Press 23 Jan 2006

NEUROBEHAVIORAL GRAND ROUNDS

Neural substrates of syntactic mapping treatment: An fMRI study of two cases

CHRISTINA E.  WIERENGA  a1 a2 , LYNN M.  MAHER  a1 a7 a8 , ANNA BACON  MOORE  a1 a2 , KEITH D.  WHITE  a1 a5 , KEITH  MCGREGOR  a1 a5 , DAVID A.  SOLTYSIK  a4 , KYUNG K.  PECK  a6 , KAUNDINYA S.  GOPINATH  a4 , FLORIS  SINGLETARY  a1 , LESLIE J.  GONZALEZ-ROTHI  a1 a3 , RICHARD W.  BRIGGS  a1 a6 and BRUCE  CROSSON  a1 a2 c1
a1 Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development, Brain Rehabilitation Research Center at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center, Gainesville, Florida
a2 Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
a3 Department of Neurology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
a4 Department of Nuclear and Radiological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
a5 Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
a6 Department of Radiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
a7 Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, Texas
a8 Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Article author query
wierenga ce   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
maher lm   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
moore ab   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
white kd   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
mcgregor k   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
soltysik da   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
peck kk   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
gopinath ks   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
singletary f   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
gonzalez-rothi lj   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
briggs rw   PubMedGoogle Scholar 
crosson b   PubMedGoogle Scholar 

Abstract

Two patients (G01, J02) with chronic nonfluent aphasia and sentence production deficits received syntactic mapping treatment to improve sentence production. The patients had dramatically different outcomes in that improved syntax production generalized to nontreatment tasks for G01, but not for JO2. To learn how treatment influenced the neural substrates for syntax production, both patients underwent pre- and posttreatment functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of sentence generation. G01 showed more robust activity posttreatment than pretreatment in Broca's area; ventral temporal activity decreased slightly from pre- to posttreatment. Comparison of J02's pretreatment and posttreatment images revealed little change, although activity was more diffuse pre- than posttreatment. Findings suggest that for G01, rehabilitation led to engagement of an area (Broca's area) used minimally during the pretreatment scan, whereas for J02, rehabilitation may have led to more efficient use of areas already involved in sentence generation during the pretreatment scan. fMRI findings are discussed in the context of sentence-production outcome and generalization. (JINS, 2006, 12, 132–146.)

(Received August 2 2004)
(Revised October 16 2005)
(Accepted October 17 2005)


Key Words: Neuroplasticity; Rehabilitation; Aphasia; Functional neuroimaging; Linguistics; Cerebrovascular accident.

Correspondence:
c1 Reprint requests to: Bruce Crosson, Ph.D., Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida Health Science Center, Box 100165, Gainesville, FL 32610-0165. E-mail: bcrosson@phhp.ufl.edu

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