You are in: Home » Research at the Unit » EEG/MEG Research on Language
Constraint-induced aphasia therapy
Constraint-induced aphasia therapy
Scientific development needs to contribute to clinical practice. This project addresses a specific clinical domain where neuroscientific theories of language can potentially become useful, namely aphasia therapy. On this basis we have developed and tested a new aphasia therapy method, called Constraint-Induced Aphasia (CIA) therapy. The principles underlying CIA therapy are (i) to provoke a high correlation of neuronal activity patterns by using a massed practice regime, (ii) to stimulate distributed cortical systems related to the processing of words and their meaning by providing behaviorally relevant multimodal input that mimicks communication in everyday life, and (iii) to prevent the learned nonuse of cortical functions that is frequently observed in individuals suffering from stroke by introducing communication contraints (Taub, Uswatte & Elbert, 2002).
In a randomized and controlled study, we could show that Constraint-Induced Aphasia therapy leads to significant improvements of language performance in chronic aphasics over a period of 10 days of intense treatment (PulvermŸller, Neininger et al., 2001). Comparable improvement was absent in a control group receiving the same amount of conventional language treatment. Changes of language-related brain activation in the course of language therapy were documented using event-related potentials.
We plan to extend this research by looking at the plastic changes related to Constraint-Induced Aphasia therapy using both EEG and fMRI methods. This research will be carried out in collaboration with Bettina Mohr at Anglia Polytechnic University and Elizabeth Warburton and Jean-Claude Baron at the Stroke Unit of Addenbrooke's Hospital Cambridge.