Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the newest tools for neuroimaging, and it will greatly contribute to clarify brain-language relationship. This review summarizes basic information about fMRI. A few examnles of the fMRI studies with 1.5T scanner were also introduced
    (1) fMRI during Shiritori task. Shiritori which is similar to capping verres was lmployed as a task. The task (40sec.) and rest (40sec.) were alternatively performed 3 times. The fMRI signals generated during rest were subtracted from those during the task to clarify the actination related to Shiritori. A right-handed normal male subject showed activations mainly in the left frontal and parietal lobes. A left-handed normal male subject revealed activations in the right frontal and parietal lobes, and the left frontal lobe.
    (2) Reliability of fMRI. Almost the same sites were activated in the right-handed subject as seen two weeks before.
    (3) Clinical application. A right-handed female (40years old) had an infarction in the Broca'sregion and showed aphasia which was completely recovered 3 weeks later : She was measured with the fMRI during Shiritori task 10 years after the onset of stroke. Since she showed activations almost exclusively in the left hemisphere, we suppose that not, the right but the left hemisphere with the damaged Broca's region conpensated the deficit.

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    Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) deals with metabolic image effects of brain activation. In recent years, the mechanism underlying motor function has been intensively studied by fMRI. The aim of this paper is to offer an overview of the several researches by stating some questions raised by the study of motor function. Is fMRI useful to map cerebral functions in patients with cerebral tumors? More precisely fMRI in the patients with cerebral tumors showed activation for a motor task within the same gyrus in which intraoperatice electrical stimulation elicited a related motor function? Where neural elements related in motor hand function are located? Do tongue movements produce activations within the primary motor cortex by fMRI? What is the role of the primary motor cortex in the elaboration of motor imagery? In the monkeys, there is evidence that a pre SMA lies rostral SMA proper. In humans, are there separate cortical areas on the medial wall of the hemisphere analogous to the pre SMA, SMA proper? Is the time course differentially activated between the activated areas related learning of visuomotor sequences? Are uncrossed motor neural pathways accessed to compensate for damage to the crossed motor pathways after ischemic stroke?

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    In order to elucidate the nature of processing deficits underlying production of paraphasias in aphasic patients, and to reconsider the implication of them in the aphasic symptomatology, three lines of discussion were presented.
    1) Some authors claimed that the frequency of production of paraphasias is not different between types of aphasic syndromes. These opinions were predominantly based upon the results of naming tasks. We insisted that frequent occurrence of paraphasias in running speech, not in naming task, would be in general the characteristic of posterior aphasia with fluent speech.
    2) We presented some unusual cases with posterior aphasia, three with Wernicke's aphasia and one with transcortical sensory aphasia. Although their speech was fluent with normal articulation and syntax, we could not find out any contamination with paraphasias in it. It consisted of demonstrative pronouns, conventional phrases, mimetic words, and function words, all of which conveying no definite information. We proposed to designate the feature of their speech “no content word jargon”.
    All of the four cases with no content word jargon had widespread damage involving anterior and posterior portion of the left temporal lobe, in addition to the lesions in posterior temporal and parietal region. Anterior and inferior portion of left temporal lobe might play an important role in promoting the retrieval of content words.
    Paraphasias observed in usual cases with posterior aphasia would be a sign to demonstrate that both of word representation and promoting mechanism of word retrieval are spared in such cases.
    3) A case of deep dysphasia was reported. Her speech was a typical neologistic jargon in the acute stage of her disease. Ten months after onset, we noticed that she made abundant semantic paraphasias as well as neologisms in a single word repetition. She had recovered the ability to comprehend single words, and she was able to retrieve a lot of appropriate content words in free conversation.
    On the analysis of her responses in repetition tasks, we concluded that the occurrence of semantic paraphasia in a single word repetition could not be attributed to STM deficit. Instead, we proposed the hypothesis that there are two separate routes in spoken word production. Word production by the route bypassing the Wernicke's area would be relevant to the occurrence of semantic paraphasias.

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    Phonemic paraphasia and verbal paraphasia were investigated in relation to focal brain lesions. Regarding phonemic paraphasia, the patients with the lesion in the left prefrontal gyrus showed no different frequency of phonemic paraphasia between the task of confrontation naming and repetition, while the patient with the lesions in the left posterior regions including temporo-parietal lobes showed more significant frequency of phonemic paraphasia in the task of confrontation naming than repetition. This result indicates that phonemic paraphasia can be caused by some different origin in the process of speech : invoking and rearrangement of the target phonemes. The phonemic paraphasia due to left frontal lesion may be possibly caused by the disturbance of realization of phonemes, which did not receive any effect by the difference of modality : confrontation naming and repetition, while the phonemic paraphasia due to the left posterior lesions may be caused by the disturbance in the process of invoking, rearrangement and retrieval of phonemes, which can be improved by the given phonemes in repetition task. Regarding verbal paraphasia, the patients with the left frontal lobe lesions showed no significance of frequency between semantic paraphasia and non-semantic related paraphasia, while the patients with the lesions in the left posterior regions including temporo-parieto-occipital lobes showed more significant frequency of semantic paraphasia than semantically unrelated paraphasia. This fact indicates that the patients with left frontal lesion have a disturbance of selective access to the target related semantic field, while the patients with the left posterior lesions can access the target related semantic fields but cannot select and retrieve a proper target word.

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    This paper makes a comparative analysis between spontaneous speech errors and some conduction aphasic utterances made by two patients. The results and suggestions are as follows : (i)The frequency of contextual errors by normal speakers are three times higher than non-contextual errors, whereas the tendency is reversed in conductive aphasic errors ; (ii) the phonological environment of the interacting elements as well as similarlities between errors and sources should be considered seriously when we postulate the “Phonological Level” and “Phonetic Level”. The author suggests that patients are capable of building a phonological frame (e. g. sequence of morae slots for intended words) as evidenced by two observations : that addition errors tend to occur between bimoraic foot boundaries with high regularity ; and substitution errors seem to occur between two morae with identical vowels.

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    Twenty-six chronic aphasics with dementia were introduced to group language therapy based on the approach for dementia patients. A number of distinct features characterized the therapy. 1) The main programs were drama, field activities and cooking, which together offered opportunities for playing, laughter and enjoyment. Secondarily, naming, reading and writing were combined with the main programs. 2) We primarily sought to deal with the patients' emotions. 3) Orientation training was provided. 4) Various types of co-medical staff were also engaged. After about six months, in the Overall Assessment of SLTA Results the patients' scores improved in general. In particular, two patients thought to be short-term from onset of aphasia with mild dementia showed a tendency toward greater improvement. In the communication behavior test, 14 of the 18 patients improved, especially in the items of orientation, judgement of circumstances and attention span, which are the basis of improved communication. As chronic aphasics with dementia are increasing, it is important that we make the most of group language therapy treatments.

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    The purpose of this study was to analyze the perturbation of speech disorders by acoustic analysis. We compared the speech of an apraxia of speech patient with those of 5 normal controls regarding speech length, maximal sound pressure of the initial consonant and the fundamental frequency. Thirty words of 2 to 4 syllables were spoken 3 continuous times. Fluctuations of speech length, maximal sound pressure of the initial consonant and the fundamental frequency in 1 vowel were inconsistent in the apraxia of speech patient, while those of the control subjects were consistent. However, the fundamental frequency in words was flat in the apraxic patient compared to the control subjects. These findings suggest that the speech abnormalities in apraxia of speech patients are caused by a disorder of the intentional movement in articulation organs including the co-ordination disorder in expiration and/or glottal closure. Acoustic analysis is useful to examine auditory symptoms in detail.

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    This study was designed to determine whether the performance of the test for left unilateral spatial neglect is improved by increasing the exteral affirmation. Conventional sub-tests included in the Behavioural inattention test were performed in 21 patients with unilateral spatial neglect. Whenever the patients completed the test, they were instructed to try affirmation once again, and if there was any error, to correct it with a red ball-point pen. The result was that, although affirmation had no effect on neglect of the left side of a single objects, such as line bisection or figure and shape copying, the number of letter cancellations and star cancellations significantly increased after affirmation. The above findings suggest that repeated affirmation may reduce neglect in terms of targets requiring a wide range of spatial explorarion. Promotion of affirmation behavior appears to be a means of reducing neglect in the rehabilitation setting of left unilateral spatial neglect.

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