This gap in knowledge is significant because comprehension deficits not only disrupt patients' functional abilities but can also compromise intervention and rehabilitation efforts. In particular, very little work has examined outcomes and recovery of auditory comprehension following stroke. Current research on aphasia recovery has largely examined broad outcome measures such as overall aphasia severity, rather than specific aspects of speech and language ( 6– 14).

Recovery from aphasia varies widely among individuals, and the factors predicting recovery are not well-understood. Aphasia can impair an individual's ability to understand and produce language, leading to a number of social and functional challenges and decreased quality of life ( 3– 5). Age and gender were not associated with outcome or recovery slopes.Ĭonclusions: The current findings suggest a critical role for the posterior left middle temporal gyrus in the recovery of auditory comprehension following stroke, and that spontaneous recovery of auditory comprehension can continue well beyond the first year post-stroke.Īphasia is a devastating language disorder that occurs in over 30% of patients who have a stroke ( 1, 2).

Higher education was associated with better outcome on all auditory comprehension tasks. The recovery analysis revealed that auditory comprehension scores continued to improve beyond the first year post-stroke. There was a small region of convergence between the three comprehension tasks, in the very posterior portion of the left middle temporal gyrus. Poor comprehension of sequential commands was associated with lesions in the left posterior middle temporal gyrus. Poor yes/no sentence comprehension was associated almost exclusively with the left mid-posterior middle temporal gyrus. Results: LSM analyses revealed that poor single-word auditory comprehension was associated with lesions involving the left mid- to posterior middle temporal gyrus, and portions of the angular and inferior-middle occipital gyri. In a subset of patients who completed language testing at two or more time points, we also analyzed the trajectory of recovery in auditory comprehension using survival curve-based time compression. Demographic variables (age, gender, and education) were also examined for their role in these outcomes. Univariate and multivariate lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) was used to identify brain regions associated with auditory comprehension outcomes on three different tasks: Single-word comprehension, yes/no sentence comprehension, and comprehension of sequential commands. Methods: This study included 168 left hemisphere chronic stroke patients stroke patients with auditory comprehension impairments ranging from mild to severe.

Thus, little is known about the time frame for auditory comprehension recovery following stroke, and whether specific neurologic and demographic variables contribute to recovery and outcome. Despite its importance, limited research has examined the recovery pattern of auditory comprehension and instead has focused on aphasia recovery more generally. The inability to understand others has a direct impact on a person's quality of life and ability to benefit from treatment. Introduction: One of the most challenging symptoms of aphasia is an impairment in auditory comprehension. 2Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.1Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, CA, United States.

Auditory comprehension treatment