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Atypical associations to abstract words in Broca's aphasia

Roll, Mikael LU ; Mårtensson, Frida LU ; Sikström, Sverker LU orcid ; Apt, Pia LU ; Bååth, Rasmus LU and Horne, Merle LU orcid (2012) In Cortex 48(8). p.1068-1072
Abstract
Introduction

Left frontal brain lesions are known to give rise to aphasia and impaired word associations. These associations have previously been difficult to analyze. We used a semantic space method to investigate associations to cue words. The degree of abstractness of the generated words and semantic similarity to the cue words were measured.

Method

Three subjects diagnosed with Broca’s aphasia and twelve control subjects associated freely to cue words. Results were evaluated with latent semantic analysis (LSA) applied to the Swedish Parole corpus.

Results

The aphasic subjects could be clearly distinguished from controls by a lower degree of abstractness in the words they generated. The... (More)
Introduction

Left frontal brain lesions are known to give rise to aphasia and impaired word associations. These associations have previously been difficult to analyze. We used a semantic space method to investigate associations to cue words. The degree of abstractness of the generated words and semantic similarity to the cue words were measured.

Method

Three subjects diagnosed with Broca’s aphasia and twelve control subjects associated freely to cue words. Results were evaluated with latent semantic analysis (LSA) applied to the Swedish Parole corpus.

Results

The aphasic subjects could be clearly distinguished from controls by a lower degree of abstractness in the words they generated. The aphasic group’s associations showed a negative correlation between semantic similarity to cue word and abstractness of cue word.

Conclusions

By developing novel semantic measures, we showed that Broca’s aphasic subjects’ word production was characterized by a low degree of abstractness and low degree of coherence in associations to abstract cue words. The results support models where meanings of concrete words are represented in neural networks involving perceptual and motor areas, whereas the meaning of abstract words is more dependent on connections to other word forms in the left frontal region. Semantic spaces can be used in future developments of evaluative tools for both diagnosis and research purposes. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
aphasia, latent semantic analysis, LSA, concreteness, abstractness
in
Cortex
volume
48
issue
8
pages
1068 - 1072
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000306724700016
  • scopus:84863778238
  • pmid:22172978
ISSN
1973-8102
DOI
10.1016/j.cortex.2011.11.009
project
Abstract, emotional and concrete words in the mental lexicon
Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Cognitive Science (015001004), Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology (013020000), Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
7fc4b4d4-0168-4872-ac44-aad2f844b854 (old id 2204853)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:22:41
date last changed
2023-11-24 08:04:19
@article{7fc4b4d4-0168-4872-ac44-aad2f844b854,
  abstract     = {{Introduction<br/><br>
Left frontal brain lesions are known to give rise to aphasia and impaired word associations. These associations have previously been difficult to analyze. We used a semantic space method to investigate associations to cue words. The degree of abstractness of the generated words and semantic similarity to the cue words were measured.<br/><br>
Method<br/><br>
Three subjects diagnosed with Broca’s aphasia and twelve control subjects associated freely to cue words. Results were evaluated with latent semantic analysis (LSA) applied to the Swedish Parole corpus.<br/><br>
Results<br/><br>
The aphasic subjects could be clearly distinguished from controls by a lower degree of abstractness in the words they generated. The aphasic group’s associations showed a negative correlation between semantic similarity to cue word and abstractness of cue word.<br/><br>
Conclusions<br/><br>
By developing novel semantic measures, we showed that Broca’s aphasic subjects’ word production was characterized by a low degree of abstractness and low degree of coherence in associations to abstract cue words. The results support models where meanings of concrete words are represented in neural networks involving perceptual and motor areas, whereas the meaning of abstract words is more dependent on connections to other word forms in the left frontal region. Semantic spaces can be used in future developments of evaluative tools for both diagnosis and research purposes.}},
  author       = {{Roll, Mikael and Mårtensson, Frida and Sikström, Sverker and Apt, Pia and Bååth, Rasmus and Horne, Merle}},
  issn         = {{1973-8102}},
  keywords     = {{aphasia; latent semantic analysis; LSA; concreteness; abstractness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{1068--1072}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Cortex}},
  title        = {{Atypical associations to abstract words in Broca's aphasia}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2011.11.009}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cortex.2011.11.009}},
  volume       = {{48}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}