Based on data collected for standardization of the newly developed verbal paired associates learning test (S-PA) , this study analyzed associations between the number of correct answers on the S-PA and results of other neuropsychological tests in order to further understand the S-PAʼs concurrent validity profile. This study used the data from 758 normal control and 48 patients with brain damage that were collected at the time the S-PA was being developed. To examine the associations between the S-PA and other neuropsychological tests, the Word Fluency Test (WFT) and two sub-tests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test-III (WAIS-III; Digit Span and Similarities) were used to analyze data from the healthy persons; for the patients with brain damage, the WFT, WAIS-III sub-tests, and three sub-tests of the Wechsler Memory Scale-R (WMS-R; Verbal Memory Index, Verbal Paired Associates, Logical Memory) were used. High correlations were found between the number of correct answers on the S-PA and performance on the WMS-R Verbal Memory Index and Verbal Paired Associates sub-tests, which is evidence of high concurrent validity of the S-PA as a verbal memory test. However, correlations were low between the S-PA and the WMS-Rʼs Logical Memory sub-test, suggesting that the S-PA is a test that measures a construct different from memorizing stories. In addition, the results of this study indicate that S-PA performance may also be associated with extensiveness of vocabulary, ability to find similarities among words, and speed of handling and processing visual images.

  In studies of therapy for anomia, there are few reports on generalization to untreated words. Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) treatment on confrontation naming remediates not only treated words but also untreated words, and has maintenance treatment effect. However, there has heretofore been no report on Japanese-speaking persons with aphasia. We investigated the training effects, generalization, and maintenance effect of SFA treatment of two Japanese native speakers, one with anomic aphasia and the other with transcortical sensory aphasia. Treatment was applied across two lists of a picture-naming task in the context of a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Treatment sessions generally occurred once every two weeks. Before and after training, we carried out a naming test of 100 words. It was found that both participants demonstrated improvement in naming treated nouns and generalized untreated nouns during this task and maintained a high performance for two further months. We conclude that the participantsʼ spontaneously self-generated cues created through the technique of SFA have effected improvements and generalization that promote word finding by means of recalling multiple semantic features. It is important that the speech therapist guide persons with aphasia in the technique of SFA to learn to use words related semantic feature as effective cues.

  We report a patient who exhibited a sitting disability after infarction in the right medial temporal lobe, upper part of the bilateral fronto-parietal lobe, and the bilateral occipital lobe. The patient tended to sit toward the front of a chair and shift his body direction away from the correct direction when sitting. We speculated that sitting toward the front of the chair resulted from impaired judgment of distance, judging from the patientʼs errors in the forward and backward directions when reaching for dishes, incorrect estimation of the spatial distance of objects, and his remark that “distance is difficult to comprehend.” We inferred the abnormal shift in body direction was related to the patientʼs inability to orient his own body, judging from an effective compensatory strategy of trying to align part of his body with the chair and his remark “I donʼt know how to sit on the chair.” The disordered sitting improved with the use of parallel bars as well as foot and arm supports of a wheelchair. Rehabilitation therapy comprised gradually weaning the patient from the use of foot and arm supports, which provided environmental cues to the patient. This rehabilitation strategy led to improvements in the patientʼs ability to sit on other types of chairs.

  In Japan, patients with aphasia experience a variety of challenges in their pursuit of employment opportunities, and supportive measures for such individuals have not been established. Here, we describe the case of a high school English teacher with conduction aphasia who was provided outpatient employment support as well as speech and language therapy. The patientʼs main symptoms included verbal short-term memory disorder and phonemic paraphasia. His wife accompanied him to the weekly language therapy sessions with the objective of sharing information with people at his workplace in the form of written progress reports. His efforts to resume teaching were aided by enabling him to discern grammatical clauses in the written material in the textbooks by adding slashes to the text and adding phonetic characters beside the kanji characters for low-frequency words. These compensatory techniques were designed to help him deal with his problem in reading aloud. A speech-language-hearing therapist accompanied him to his workplace during the rehabilitation program and conducted conferences with his supervisor, coworkers, and other relevant individuals. Fifteen months after the onset, he resumed his original job, with the understanding that he would teach only the first-year class. No adverse event has been reported as of 14 months since his return to work. This experience indicated that it is possible for an English teacher with conduction aphasia, who uses several language resources, to resume work if the characteristics of his/her language-related symptoms are assessed and he/she is taught compensatory techniques appropriate to his/her workplace.