Treatment of word-finding deficits in fluent aphasia through the manipulation of spatial attention: Preliminary findings Dotson, V., Singletary, F., Fuller, R., Koehler, S., Moore, A.B., Gonzalez Rothi, L., Crosson, B. Aphasiology, 22 (1), 103-113 (2008).

Earlier studies have suggested that engaging the intact hemispace of an aphasia patient could help overcome impaired attention mechanisms and lead to improved language performance. Consistent with previous research, the authors of this study found that two out of three participating fluent aphasia patients demonstrated improved picture-naming skills when images were placed 45 degrees to the left of the body midline during treatment. The participant who did not demonstrate improvement was much more severely impaired than the other two participants. He showed no change in naming accurary from baseline to treatment. While this study confirmed that manipulating spatial attention can improve languge skills in some fluent aphasia patients, additional research is needed to confirm the active component of the treatment, the underlying neural mechanisms and the ecological validity of the treatment.