Iconic gesturing in aphasia (Stark & Cofoid, 2021)

Purpose: In persons living with aphasia, we will explore the relationship between iconic gesture production during spontaneous speech and discourse task, spoken language, and demographic information.Method: Employing the AphasiaBank database, we coded iconic gestures in 75 speakers with aphasia during two spoken discourse tasks: a procedural narrative, which involved participants telling the experimenter how to make a sandwich (“Sandwich”), and a picture sequence narrative, which had participants describe the picture sequence to the experimenter (“Window”). Forty-three produced a gesture during both tasks, and we further evaluate data from this subgroup as a more direct comparison between tasks.Results: More iconic gestures, at a higher rate, were produced during the procedural narrative. For both tasks, there was a relationship between iconic gesture rate, modeled as iconic gestures per word, and metrics of language dysfluency extracted from the discourse task as well as a metric of fluency extracted from a standardized battery. Iconic gesture production was correlated with aphasia duration, which was driven by performance during only a single task (Window), but not with other demographic metrics, such as aphasia severity or age. We also provide preliminary evidence for task differences shown through the lens of two types of iconic gestures.Conclusions: While speech-language pathologists have utilized gesture in therapy for poststroke aphasia, due to its possible facilitatory role in spoken language, there has been considerably less work in understanding how gesture differs across naturalistic tasks and how we can best utilize this information to better assess gesture in aphasia and improve multimodal treatment for aphasia. Furthermore, our results contribute to gesture theory, particularly, about the role of gesture across naturalistic tasks and its relationship with spoken language.Supplemental Material S1. Iconic gesture examples from the gesture coding, for the Window task, and for the Sandwich task, demonstrating a variety of gesture forms used.Supplemental Material S2. Descriptive statistics of gesture type frequency for all gesture types (i.e., iconic, emblem, concrete deictic, and number) collected as a part of this study in N = 75 participants.Supplemental Material S3. Correlation table between demographic information, language information extracted from each discourse task, and iconic gestures (collapsed across subtypes; for frequency and rate) in N = 75 subjects.Supplemental Material S4. Correlation table between demographic information, language information extracted from each discourse task, and iconic gestures (collapsed across subtypes; for frequency and rate) in N = 43 subjects (subjects who gestured on both tasks).Stark, B. C., & Cofoid, C. (2021). Task-specific iconic gesturing during spoken discourse in aphasia. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00271Publisher Note: This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers From the 50th Clinical Aphasiology Conference.

目的：针对患有失语症的人群，本研究旨在探讨自发性言语中的象征性手势产生与话语任务、口语表达以及人口统计学信息之间的关系。方法：采用AphasiaBank数据库，我们对75位失语症患者在两个口语话语任务中的象征性手势进行了编码：一项为程序性叙述任务，要求参与者向实验者说明如何制作三明治（“三明治”），另一项为图片序列叙述任务，要求参与者向实验者描述图片序列（“窗口”）。在两项任务中，有43位参与者均产生了手势，我们对这一子组的数据进行了进一步评估，以作为两项任务之间更直接的比较。结果：在程序性叙述任务中，产生了更多的象征性手势，且频率更高。对于两项任务，象征性手势的频率（以每词象征性手势数量建模）与从话语任务中提取的语言流畅度指标以及从标准化测试中提取的流畅度指标之间存在关联。象征性手势的产生与失语症病程相关，这种相关性仅由单一任务（“窗口”）中的表现驱动，而与其他人口统计学指标（如失语症严重程度或年龄）无关。此外，我们还提供了初步证据，表明通过两种类型的象征性手势展现了任务之间的差异。结论：尽管言语语言病理学家已将手势应用于中风后失语症的治疗中，鉴于其可能在口语表达中发挥促进作用，但关于手势在不同自然任务中的差异以及如何最佳利用这些信息以更好地评估失语症中的手势并改进多模态治疗的文献相对较少。此外，我们的研究结果对手势理论做出了贡献，特别是关于手势在自然任务中的作用及其与口语表达的关系。补充材料S1：展示了“窗口”任务和“三明治”任务中的象征性手势编码示例，以展示使用的各种手势形式。补充材料S2：描述了在N = 75名参与者中收集的所有手势类型（即象征性、象征、具体指示和数字）频率的描述性统计。补充材料S3：展示了N = 75名受试者的人口统计学信息、从每个话语任务中提取的语言信息以及象征性手势（跨亚型汇总；对于频率和频率）之间的相关性表格。补充材料S4：展示了N = 43名受试者（在两项任务中均产生手势的受试者）的人口统计学信息、从每个话语任务中提取的语言信息以及象征性手势（跨亚型汇总；对于频率和频率）之间的相关性表格。Stark, B. C. & Cofoid, C. (2021). 失语症患者在口语话语中的特定任务象征性手势。美国言语语言病理学杂志。在线预发表。https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJSLP-20-00271出版者注释：本文是特别专辑：第50届临床失语症会议精选论文的一部分。