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In aphasia, is inner speech impacted and can in help boost thinking skills?

Gears

Executive control (EC) is a set of mental processes that help us face novel situations and perform goal-oriented tasks. EC appears to be recruited when the language system is damaged and can be an important predictor of long-term language treatment success in those with post-stroke aphasia. However, a certain level of language ability is required to complete EC tasks, and it remains unclear how language difficulties associated with aphasia impact performance on these tasks. Further, research on healthy controls demonstrates that self-directed language, or inner speech (i.e., the little voice in one’s head), assists with completing EC tasks, and that individuals with aphasia have varying inner speech abilities.

This project aims to investigate whether the verbal requirements of EC tasks can influence EC performance in those with post-stroke aphasia, and to determine whether inner speech can assist with EC performance in this population.

Findings from this work may lead to the development of a reliable battery of EC tasks which can be ranked by linguistic processing demand and assist with removing linguistic barriers in clinical 
contexts. In addition, this work will shed light on the nature of inner speech in those with aphasia, and how it compares to overt speech production ability.

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