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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Semin Speech Lang 2017; 38(01): 029-039
DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1597262
Review Article
Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Short-Term and Working Memory Treatments for Improving Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia: A Review and a Replication Study

Christos Salis
1   Speech and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
,
Faustina Hwang
2   Biomedical Engineering Section, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
,
David Howard
1   Speech and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
,
Nicole Lallini
1   Speech and Language Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
› Author Affiliations
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Publication History

Publication Date:
15 February 2017 (online)

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Abstract

Although the roles of verbal short-term and working memory on spoken sentence comprehension skills in persons with aphasia have been debated for many years, the development of treatments to mitigate verbal short-term and working memory deficits as a way of improving spoken sentence comprehension is a new avenue in treatment research. In this article, we review and critically appraise this emerging evidence base. We also present new data from five persons with aphasia of a replication of a previously reported treatment that had resulted in some improvement of spoken sentence comprehension in a person with aphasia. The replicated treatment did not result in improvements in sentence comprehension. We forward recommendations for future research in this, admittedly weak at present, but important clinical research avenue that would help improve our understanding of the mechanisms of improvement of short-term and working memory training in relation to sentence comprehension.

Keywords

Aphasia - sentence comprehension - treatment - short-term memory - working memory
 

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