Have Questions? Ask our professional of the month Audrey Holland, Ph. D., CCC-SLP-BC-NCD .

Question: My wife who is 47 suffered a major stroke 3 months ago amd was discharged from an acute rehab faculity a fews ago. Currently she going to a 5 day a week outpatient program. As a result of the stroke she has aphasia which makes it almost impossible to communicate.

Answer: Your wife is very fortunate to have you as an advocate during this challenging time. Without knowing your wife, and testing her language and cognitive skills, it would be difficult for me to recommend a specific speech and language intervention or program for her. What I can tell you is that intensive therapy has been shown to be quite beneficial for some individuals with aphasia and RIC has an excellent reputation. If you are considering this option, I’d highly recommend that you contact a speech-language pathologist at the facility and discuss the details (RIC’s Intensive Aphasia Therapy Program, 312-238-6163). Again, this program is not appropriate for everyone with aphasia. Gather information about many programs, including the program that your wife is currently attending. Her current facility may provide intensive treatment as well. Once you have gathered the information about the various programs, talk you’re your wife’s neurologist/physiatrist/primary care physician about the best treatment options. Wishing you and your wife the best. Read more.

iHOPE is a series of Web presentations and “Ask the Experts” Q&A sessions led by topic experts who will give you information and resources to help with specific issues related to stroke recovery. It is designed to provide an individual experience, allowing you to learn at your own pace and access information about stroke information specific to your personal needs.

 Join topic expert Mary Pinzon, RN, CPE, MEd, for Preventing Another Stroke and learn more about:

• What is a stroke?
• Types of stroke
• Warning signs of stroke
• Stroke risk factors and tips for managing them
•  Medication assistance programs

 Mary Pinzon, RN, CPE, MEd, is the Stroke Education Nurse for INTEGRIS James R. Daniel Stroke Center of Oklahoma at Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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Xpress Yourself Inside and Out!

Imagine a world where the focus is on the conversation instead of the communication device. Imagine a world where communication happens everywhere – at school, at home, at work and in social settings – naturally and without exception.   The DynaVox Xpress™ makes this world a reality.

The DynaVox Xpress is the world’s most powerful handheld augmentative communication device. Portable, discreet and easy-to-use, the DynaVox Xpress fits in a pocket or purse and delivers full communication capabilities previously available only in larger devices. With the Xpress, you can share meaningful messages, connect with friends and family and browse your favorite web sites with the optional browser – using a single handheld device.

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It’s time for the next National Aphasia Association Regional Speaking Out! Conference!

You are invited to join the National Aphasia Association and the Oklahoma Speech-Language-Hearing Association September 30th, 2010 in Tulsa, OK for another one-day conference specifically for you. Whether you are a person living successfully with aphasia or caring co-survivor, we encourage you to join us for what will be a successful and enjoyable conference.

For more information about the conference, please click here to view our brochure. If you would like to go ahead and register online, please click the “Register Now!” link below.

Register Now!

If you have any questions or concerns, contact Amy Coble at The National Aphasia Association
naa@aphasia.org or call (800) 922-4622.

A poignant novel involving Primary Progressive Aphasia.

One review:

With a delicate and loving touch, Katharine Davis explores a deep and often complex relationship –the one between two sisters. Like the tapestry that becomes central to the story itself, A Slender Thread is a beautiful and utterly original creation . . . . Emotionally honest, meticulously observed, but also propulsively dramatic and readable, this is a novel that will resonate with women of all ages –and with everyone who loves a good story, well told. If you have sisters, you’ll want to share A Slender Thread with them. If you don’t, it will serve as solace –and a powerful testament –to what you are missing.”
–Liza Gyllenhall, author of Local Knowledge.

www.Amazon.com.

Two articles posted in Stroke Net newsletters under the title of Speak No Evil, written by Erin and JJ Robertson.

JJ had a stroke in February 2009. Erin is his wife and caregiver. JJ’s primary residual from the stroke is aphasia. In this column they share their stroke experiences.

Click on Aphasia Comes to Roost and Emotions and Stroke

The National Aphasia Association has links to Community Groups State by State.

Note: The Aphasia Community Groups listed below represent a wide variety of group types and structures. Some consist only of persons with aphasia and their significant others and some are more inclusive. Some are free and some are not. The listing below is alphabetical by state and city. Canadian resources are listed at the end.

Also note: See the end of this roster for the names and numbers of national organizations that may also be able to put you in touch with groups.

Click on National Aphasia Association Community Groups and search by State.

A new article posted in Advance Magazine on a new method to analyze brain imaging data may paint a clearer picture of language production.

Although some brain regions are known to be associated with language, neuroscientists have had a surprisingly difficult time using brain imaging technology to understand exactly what these ‘language areas’ are doing. In a new study MIT neuroscientists report on a new method to analyze brain imaging data – one that may paint a clearer picture of how our brain produces and understands language [Journal of Neurophysiology Online, April 21, 2010].

Research with patients who developed specific language deficits (such as the inability to comprehend passive sentences) following brain injury suggest that different aspects of language may reside in different parts of the brain. But attempts to find these functionally specific regions of the brain with current neuroimaging technologies have been inconsistent and controversial.

One reason for this inconsistency may be due to the fact that most previous studies relied on group analyses in which brain imaging data were averaged across multiple subjects – a computation that could introduce statistical noise and bias into the analyses.

“Because brains differ in their folding patterns and in how functional areas map onto these folds, activations obtained in functional MRI studies often do not precisely ‘line up’ across brains,” explained Evelina Fedorenko, first author of the study and a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Nancy Kanwisher, PhD, at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. ” Some regions of the brain thought to be involved in language are also geographically close to regions that support other cognitive processes like music, arithmetic, or general working memory. By spatially averaging brain data across subjects you may see an activation ‘blob’ that looks like it supports both language and, say, arithmetic, even in cases where in every single subject these two processes are supported by non-overlapping nearby bits of cortex.”

The only way to get around this problem, according to Fedorenko, is to first define “regions of interest” in each individual subject and then investigate those regions by examining their responses to various new tasks. To do this, they developed a “localizer” task where subjects read either sentences or sequences of pronounceable nonwords.

Sample sentence: THE DOG CHASED THE CAT ALL DAY LONG

Sample nonword sequence: BOKER DESH HE THE DRILES LER CICE FRISTY’S

By subtracting the nonword-activated regions from the sentence-activated regions, the researchers found a number of language regions that were quickly and reliably identified in individual brains. Their new method revealed higher selectivity for sentences compared to nonwords than a traditional group analysis applied to the same data.

“This new, more sensitive method allows us now to investigate questions of functional specificity between language and other cognitive functions, as well as between different aspects of language,” Fedorenko concluded. “We’re more likely to discover which patches of cortex are specialized for language and which also support other cognitive functions like music and working memory. Understanding the relationship between language and the rest of condition is one of key questions in cognitive neuroscience.”

Fedorenko published the tools used in this study on her website: http://web.mit.edu/evelina9/www/funcloc.html . The goal for the future, she says, is to adopt a common standard for identifying language-sensitive areas so that knowledge about their functions can be accumulated across studies and across labs. “The eventual goal is of course to understand the precise nature of the computations each brain region performs,” Fedorenko says, “but that’s a tall order.”

The research was funded by Ellison Medical Foundation, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, McGovern Institute for Brain Research.

To read, print or email this article click on Advance Magazine

“The Lonely Patient” By Michael Stein is more than just a survival guide or owner’s manual for those who are ill or whose bodies are broken. Recognizing that only clinical recovery can nullify loneliness, the author reminds us that a temporary escape can still be found in memory, imagination, and hope. Physicians and especially patients will find that “The Lonely Patient” makes very good company. (A review by the Journal of the American Medical Association). To Order

The idea for Road ID was born out of a father’s concern for a marathon runner but could be very useful and important if someone with aphasia is somewhere without the benefit of a caregiver or friend, possibly hurt and unable to communicate. Read More . And Read More from an article in the StrokeNetwork newsletter.

An article in the StrokeNet newsletter “Fuel for the Journey” by Lin Mouat

Managing Your Energy

I used to be able to force myself to do more than my body allowed. In the past, I’ve often pushed to the point of feeling sick – something I wouldn’t recommend. I got away with overdoing for many years, until, over a period of time, physical ailments assailed me – each one depleting me more.

By the time I had bilateral strokes, I was already struggling with the affects of Fibromyalgia, and the strokes pretty much drained my energy.

A few of the things that can affect our energy are:
• Medications
• Physical difficulties
• Age
• Level of activity, which for many of us can be dictated by our physical and pain issues
• Lack of sleep. I think that sleep patterns is an individual thing.
• Attitude.

Click on StrokeNetwork to read more