R01DC019129

Implicit Structural Priming as a Treatment Component in Aphasia - Project Summary

Implicit Structural Priming as a Treatment Component in Aphasia

Impaired message-to-structure mapping is at the heart of communication deficits in persons with aphasia (PWA), resulting in impaired sentence production and comprehension. As of yet, the few treatment options available for the mapping deficits involve explicit metacognitive training of sentence production, yielding variable generalization and maintenance effects. Therefore, there remains a critical need to identify interventions that successfully improve mapping abilities in PWA.

This project introduces implicit structural priming as a novel facilitator for language recovery in aphasia. Structural priming, a tendency to repeat or better process a current sentence because of its structural similarity to a previously experienced ("prime") sentence, has been ubiquitously observed across decades of psycholinguistic research and viewed as a powerful tool to study the processes of implicit language learning. Preliminary studies reported in this application suggest that structural priming can be applied to PWA and might produce positive, enduring language recovery in PWA.

The planned studies seek to test the hypothesis that implicit structural priming alters the central syntactic system in PWA, creating lasting and generalized improvements in both language production and comprehension.

Aim 1 will determine the extent to which different manipulations of structural priming conditions modulate immediate and long-term improvement in sentence production. We integrate multiple theories of language learning and apply them to make predictions about the trajectory of priming-induced syntactic learning in PWA.

In Aim 2, using a set of eyetracking sentence comprehension tasks, we investigate whether the effects of structural priming in production generalize to off-line (accuracy) and on-line (eye fixations) sentence comprehension and determine what learning conditions result in greater cross-modality generalization.

In Aim 3, we develop and establish Phase I efficacy data of an implicit structural priming treatment, incorporating the crucial learning conditions supporting maximal retention from Aims 1 and 2.

The outcomes of this work will lead to the identification of a model of language (re-)learning in aphasia and the development of a novel treatment that capitalizes on the benefits of the implicit learning mechanisms underlying structural priming.

Purdue University

TO INVESTIGATE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO INDIVIDUALS WITH DEAFNESS OR DISORDERS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION IN THE AREAS OF HEARING, BALANCE, SMELL, TASTE, VOICE, SPEECH, AND LANGUAGE. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS (NIDCD) SUPPORTS RESEARCH AND RESEARCH TRAINING, INCLUDING INVESTIGATION INTO THE ETIOLOGY, PATHOLOGY, DETECTION, TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION OF DISORDERS OF HEARING AND OTHER COMMUNICATION PROCESSES, PRIMARILY THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH IN ANATOMY, AUDIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOENGINEERING, EPIDEMIOLOGY, GENETICS, IMMUNOLOGY, MICROBIOLOGY, MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, THE NEUROSCIENCES, OTOLARYNGOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, PHARMACOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY, PSYCHOPHYSICS, SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY, AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES. THE NIDCD SUPPORTS: (1) RESEARCH INTO THE EVALUATION OF TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES USED IN DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, REHABILITATION, AND PREVENTION OF DISORDERS OF HEARING AND OTHER COMMUNICATION PROCESSES, (2) RESEARCH INTO PREVENTION AND EARLY DETECTION AND DIAGNOSIS OF HEARING LOSS AND SPEECH, VOICE, AND LANGUAGE DISORDERS AND RESEARCH INTO PREVENTING THE EFFECTS OF SUCH DISORDERS BY MEANS OF APPROPRIATE REFERRAL AND REHABILITATION, (3) RESEARCH INTO THE DETECTION, TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION OF DISORDERS OF HEARING AND OTHER COMMUNICATION PROCESSES IN THE ELDERLY POPULATION AND ITS REHABILITATION TO ENSURE CONTINUED EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS, AND (4) RESEARCH TO EXPAND KNOWLEDGE OF THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AGENTS THAT INFLUENCE HEARING OR OTHER COMMUNICATION PROCESSES. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO ENCOURAGE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO FOSTER TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.173 - Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) [HHS - NIH]

West Lafayette, Indiana 479072122 United States

Single Zip Code

NIDCD Clinical Trials in Communication Disorders (R01-Clinical Trial Required) (PA-18-334)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 386% from $640,144 to $3,109,320.