Cieľom práce je priblížiť klinický význam aplikácie kognitívno-neuropsychologického prístupu v diagnostike afázie, alexie a agrafie u pacientov s ložiskovým poškodením mozgu. Na prípade štyroch pacientov s ischemickou léziou v ľavej mozgovej hemisfére je ilustrovaná dôležitosť detailnej analýzy jazykových procesov, ktoré ponúka kognitívna neuropsychológia. Aj keď klinický syndróm afázie bol identický u všetkých pacientov (Brocová afázia), vnútorný mechanizmus narušenia produkcie a porozumenia reči, alexie a agrafie bol rôzny. Tieto informácie sme mapovali pomocou novej diagnostickej metodiky, ktorá bola vytvorená na základe teoretických východísk kognitívnej neuropsychológie pre jazykové procesy.
Porucha pomenovania (anómia) môže byť jedným z prvých príznakov mozgovej patológie. Diagnostika procesu pomenovania je preto súčasťou neuropsychologického alebo logopedického vyšetrenia. Test pomenovania obrázkov v slovenskom jazyku bol vytvorený v roku 2009. Článok prináša analýzu výkonov klinickej populácie s anómiou v teste pomenovania obrázkov. Test bol administrovaný u 119 klientov s rôznou etiológiou mozgovej patológie. Výsledky výskumu ukázali, že vek osvojenia si slov, familiarita slov, predstaviteľnosť slov, frekvencia výskytu slov a vizuálna komplexnosť obrázkov signifikantne ovplyvňujú rýchlosť a presnosť vyhľadávania slov u dospelej klinickej populácie s anómiou. and Influence of item characteristics in picture naming test among Slovak speaking patients with various etiologies of cerebral pathology
Objectives. Naming deficit (anomia) could be one of the first signs of brain pathology. Evaluation of naming is an important part of neuropsychological or speech-language assessment. In 2009 was developed a picture-naming test in the Slovak language. The aim of this study is to present the results of administration of the picture-naming test among a clinical population with anomia. Subjects and setting. The test was administered to 119 clients with different etiologies of cerebral pathology with an average age of 60,81 (SD 16,75). Seventy six clients suffered CVA, twenty six had brain tumor, seven clients were after TBI and ten clients with dementia. All clients were administered with the Slovak naming test individually. All responses were transcript to the response sheet. Hypotheses. The expectation was that the performance in picture naming test will be influenced of item characteristics such as age by acquisition, frequency of occurrence, familiarity, imageability, visual complexity and length of words. Statistical analysis. In one-dimensional analyses standard methods of descriptive statistics were used. Given the relatively large deviation from normal distribution of data (Kolmogorov- Smirnov test for normality) nonparametric equivalents of standard statistical tests were used for the further analysis. To describe the relationship between variables the Kendall tau coefficient was used, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results. The results showed that in the process of lexical retrieval during picture naming task the age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, word frequency and the visual complexity of pictures significantly influence the speed and accuracy of lexical retrieval in the adult clinical population.
Semantic changes observed in aphasic patients are examined in two aspects: as transfers of names and transfers of meaning. The most frequent in the material under scrutiny are semantic changes resulting form the contiguity of meanings (metonymies) and shifts motivated by the similarity of names (paronymies). Changes based on the similarity of meanings (metaphors) and the contiguity of names (ellipses) are less frequent. The relative frequencies of the mechanisms underlying semantic change in aphasia lead one to reflect on the nature of cognitive functions in aphasic patients. That the configurations of form and content, obtained by analyzing aphasic texts, are stored in people´s cognitive structures and as such constitute templates or patterns necessary for the comprehension and description of reality, as well as for the segmentation of interpreted sequences of information. The patterns recognized in the present study pertain primarily to the visible, physical world, judgments of non-material mental images are less frequent.