The cognitive and neural relationship between executive functions and language processing in aphasia is an area of vigorous research. Previous research has provided converging evidence that persons with aphasia present with significantly lower performance in various executive function processes, including inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility as compared to language-unimpaired individuals. In language tasks, on the other hand, individuals not only use language-specific processes but also domain-general skills. Both cognitive and linguistic task performances have been related to brain functioning, while overlap in brain localization across language and domain-general cognitive processes, including executive functions, has often been found to lead to impairment in both domains in persons with aphasia. Though executive function processes play critical roles in language processing in persons with aphasia, much uncertainty still remains over the precise nature of these roles.

This special issue is designed to address questions about the interaction between executive functions and language processing in persons with aphasia that have not been adequately addressed in the available literature. Given the potential that executive functions continue to show for affecting a broad range of language skills in both language production and comprehension in aphasia, this research topic aims to collect emerging and innovative research on the way executive functions and language processing interact in aphasia, the directionality of this interaction and its neural correlates in persons with aphasia. This special issue marks an opportunity for reflection on the empirical investigation of executive functions in aphasia, the impact of executive function impairments on aphasic individuals’ language skills, as well as a glimpse of the future of executive function treatment as a feasible and effective intervention strategy targeting cognitive and language skills in persons with aphasia.

We propose an approach such that each contributed work must speak to specific questions that address the theoretical and neural underpinnings of the relationship between language processing and executive functions in persons with aphasia. Potential topics include:

- Evaluation of the relationship between executive function skills and linguistic skills in persons with aphasia at the behavioral or/and brain functioning network

- Evaluation of new measures of executive functions in persons with aphasia and analytic methods including behavioral data and neural correlates

- Evaluation of executive function interventions for individuals with aphasia and their impact on the same individuals’ language skills.

Proposed articles can be empirical papers, theoretical reviews or meta-analyses that focus on the above topics.

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Frontiers in Psychology

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