Integrity and function of gestures in aphasia
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1
Koç University, Department of Psychology, Türkiye
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2
Stroke rehabilitation center of Tehran (Tabassom), Iran
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3
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Neurology, United States
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4
Johns Hopkins University, Department of Cognitive Science, United States
A number of studies proposed that in aphasia, gesture offers a natural alternative to speech for communicating more effectively. Yet, the integrity and function of gestures in people with aphasia (PWA) is not well understood. This study has 2 aims: (1) to assess whether an acquired speech disorder affects the informativeness of gestures, (2) to investigate the communicative function of gestures in PWA.
Four Iranian PWA (two Broca’s and two Anomics, Mage = 50, two Female) and 10 controls (Mage = 59, six Female) were asked to describe 20 dynamic movie clips, depicting different motion events. Speech informativeness was calculated as the time spent on producing non-repetitive words relevant to the event over the total speech time on each trial. Participants’ spontaneous use of gestures was coded for (1) gesture informativeness (Question 1): non-repetitive event-relevant gestures excluding random hand flicks were coded as informative. Gesture informativeness was then calculated as the duration of informative gestures over total gesture duration on each trial, and (2) function for communication (Question 2). Function was defined in four categories: (a) early reinforcement (e.g., mimicking the act of running with fingers while struggling to retrieve the word “run” that was eventually produced), (b) compensatory (e.g., when the speaker drew a circle with the index finger to represent ‘around’ without producing the corresponding word, (c) complementary (e.g., mimicking the action of cartwheeling with the hand while producing the word), and (d) redundant (gestures that carry no semantic information, e.g., raising and lowering the hand during or in-between verbal expressions).
1) Does the informativeness of gesture vary with informativeness of speech?
PWA and controls produced 227 and 108 gestures, respectively. Using single-case statistics (Crawford & Gartwaite, 2007), we found that PWA’s speech was significantly less informative than that of controls, but their gestures were not (Table 1a). This finding is incompatible with studies that propose degradation of gesture in aphasia.
2) What is the communicative function of gestures?
When the functions of gestures during event descriptions were compared to controls (Table 1b), the results revealed that only one individual with aphasia (participant 05) produced significantly more redundant gestures than controls. Examining complementary and compensatory gestures, we found that while gestures mostly complemented speech rather than compensated for absent speech in healthy speakers (83% vs. 0%), the pattern was reversed in aphasia with more compensatory than complementary gestures (38% vs. 14%). This finding supports the claim that speakers employ meaning-laden gestures to compensate for diminished language content for listeners. Finally, results revealed cases where gestures produced earlier than retrieved word to facilitate the comprehension of listener at times of word-finding difficulty (mostly evident in participants 01 and 04).
Taken together, the results indicate an intact gesture system in PWA which serves mainly as an alternative to verbal communication. Future research should focus on whether the main function of gesturing in PWA is to facilitate listeners’ understanding or to help the speaker with lexical retrieval.
References
Crawford, J. R., & Garthwaite, P. H. (2007). Using regression equations built from summary data in the neuropsychological assessment of the individual case. Neuropsychology, 21(5), 611.
Keywords:
Gestures,
Speech,
production,
Communication,
Aphasia
Conference:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting, Llandudno, United Kingdom, 16 Oct - 18 Oct, 2016.
Presentation Type:
Poster Sessions
Topic:
Student Submissions
Citation:
Akhavan
N,
Göksun
T,
Kazemi
R and
Nozari
N
(2016). Integrity and function of gestures in aphasia.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
54th Annual Academy of Aphasia Meeting.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2016.68.00039
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Received:
21 Apr 2016;
Published Online:
15 Aug 2016.
*
Correspondence:
Miss. Niloofar Akhavan, Koç University, Department of Psychology, Istanbul, Türkiye, nakhavan13@ku.edu.tr