Piloting of an Executive Battery for Individuals with Aphasia

Penn, Claire and Rootshtain, Tali (2006) Piloting of an Executive Battery for Individuals with Aphasia. [Clinical Aphasiology Paper]

MS-Word Piloting_of_an_Executive_Battery_for_Individuals_with_Aphasia.doc Download (32kB)

Abstract

Communicative success for people with aphasia has been said to depend, at least in part, on the integrity of the executive functions (EF) as communication represents a complex integration of processes that requires planning, sequencing, organisation and monitoring during novel activity. Effects of executive dysfunction on daily activities may interact with or amplify limitations imposed by language disorders and therefore the ability to detect and quantify these impairments may be critical to treatment .There is a substantial body of evidence for such executive dysfunction which manifests as increased perseverative behaviour, inadequate ability to generalise new behaviours, impaired strategy application and abstract reasoning, deficits in attentional processing and working memory as well as long and short term memory deficits. However the issue of EF assessment, particularly in an aphasic population, is a complex one. Primarily, the importance of internal verbalisation to the construct of EF is critical. The extent to which internal speech is necessary for cognitive processes such as planning, self-monitoring and prospective memory is not at all clear . Furthermore, many executive function tests have verbal and other language requirements. Even those tests that do not specifically require verbal answers may have language elements to them that pose difficulties in comprehension or reading. The second issue relates to task complexity which makes it difficult to separate out the linguistic challenges of high level cognitive tasks.

Actions (login required)

View Item