Language plasticity in aphasics: evidence from slow evoked potentials

With the present experiment we sought to investigate brain plasticity underlying language recovery in a group of seventeen patients with non-fluent aphasia mainly caused by stroke. Patients were screened along three domains of measures: analysis of linguistic components by the Aachener Aphasie Test, combined mapping of their lesion from CT/MRI scans, and functional measure of the reorganized linguistic processes by means of mapping of slow evoked potentials. The spatial dimension and temporal dynamics of word processing were measured in three tasks, Phonological, Semantic and Orthographic. Compared with the matched control group, patients showed relative inhibition (decreased negativity) of left central regions in perisylvian areas, which were damaged in most subjects. In addition, reorganization of linguistic functions occurred within the left hemisphere both at frontal and posterior sites corresponding to spared brain regions. Correlations between linguistic lateralization in the three tasks and AAT subtests point to functional reorganization of phonological processes over left frontal sites and dysfunctional reorganization of semantic processing over left posterior regions.