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The efficacy of a directed rhythmic-melodic voice training in the treatment of chronic non-fluent aphasia—Behavioral and imaging results

Journal of Neurology (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a directed rhythmic-melodic voice training (SIPARI) compared to language therapy with the focus on improvement in expressive linguistic performance. 20 patients suffering from chronic non-fluent aphasia, allocated by coin tossing to either of the groups, participated in 32 single therapy sessions over a period of 4 months. Before and after therapy, independent testers performed a standardized language test (Aachener Aphasie Test). Behavioral assessments revealed that improvements of patients of the experimental group were clinically significant compared to those of the control group. These improvements concerned the description level articulation and prosody for spontaneous speech and the subtests repetition, naming, and comprehension. Based on these improvements, a significant increase in profile level (effect size (ES) = 2.028, p < 0.001) was assessed, an overall and clinically relevant measure of the severity of aphasia. Additional fMRI examinations yielded activation in the left superior frontal gyrus for the post-minus pre- therapy assessments only for participants of the experimental group. Since this brain region is reported to be particularly involved in executive processing, we assume that the directed procedure of the SIPARI treatment with regard to musical, linguistic, and cognitive function potentially holds the key for successful language rehabilitation. While our imaging results hint at a possible explanation for its efficacy, our behavioral results corroborate the efficacy of this therapy in the treatment of chronic non-fluent aphasia patients. DRKS00026730, 19.10.21, retrospectively registered https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00026730

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Availability of data and material

The conditions of our ethics approval do not permit public archiving of anonymized study data. Readers seeking access to the data should contact the lead author M. Jungblut or the local ethics committee of the medical faculty at the RWTH Aachen, Germany. Access will be granted to named individuals in accordance with ethical procedures governing the reuse of sensitive data, including completion of a formal data sharing agreement and approval of the local ethics committee. Digital materials (experimental stimuli, presentation code etc.) have been archived in a publicly accessible repository: https://osf.io/x3haf/

Notes

  1. According to the GBD (Global Burden of Diseases) 2013 study, two thirds of all strokes occur among persons < 70 years of age [43]. Latest data indicate that between 1990–2019 there has been a significant increase in stroke prevalence and incidence rates in people younger than 70 years with even faster increases from 2010 to 2019 [44].

Abbreviations

fMRI:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

SIPARI:

Singing, Intonation, Prosody, breathing (German Atmung), Rhythm and Improvisation

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Acknowledgements

The Brain Imaging Facility, a facility of the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF) Aachen within the Faculty of Medicine at RWTH Aachen University, supported this research.

Funding

This work was funded in part by the Gebrüder Werner Stiftung.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdisciplinary Institute for Music- and Speech-Therapy, Am Lipkamp 14, 47269, Duisburg, Germany

    Monika Jungblut & Christiane Mais

  2. Clinical Cognition Research, University Hospital Aachen, RWTH, Aachen, Germany

    Ferdinand Christoph Binkofski & André Schüppen

  3. Aphasia Center North Rhine Westphalia, Essen, Germany

    Christiane Mais

  4. Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research – Brain Imaging Facility, University Hospital, Aachen, Germany

    André Schüppen

Authors
  1. Monika Jungblut
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  2. Christiane Mais
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  4. André Schüppen
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Contributions

Conception and design: JS. Acquisition of data: JMS. Analysis and interpretation of data: JMS. Drafting the article: JS. Critically revising the article: JB. Reviewed final version of manuscript and approved it for submission: All authors. Funding acquisition: Mais. Study supervision: JB.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Monika Jungblut.

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The authors have declared that there are no conflicts of interests in the authorship and publication of this contribution.

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen (EK 013/10).

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Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

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All patients gave written informed consent for publication on condition that there is no reference to them personally in any publication.

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Jungblut, M., Mais, C., Binkofski, F.C. et al. The efficacy of a directed rhythmic-melodic voice training in the treatment of chronic non-fluent aphasia—Behavioral and imaging results. J Neurol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11163-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-022-11163-2

Keywords

  • Chronic non-fluent aphasia
  • fMRI
  • Language therapy
  • SIPARI
  • Executive functions
  • Left superior frontal gyrus