Application of Semantic Feature Analysis as a Treatment for Aphasic Dysnomia

Abstract

Despite agreement that dysnomia affects virtually every aphasic patient, there is no consensus about the purpose and effectiveness of techniques to treat it. Semantic feature analysis (SFA), a treatment technique designed to improve retrieval of conceptual information by accessing semantic networks, was used to treat aphasic dysnomia in a 57-year-old male who exhibited Broca's aphasia secondary to a left frontoparietal ischemic infarction. SFA was effective for improving confrontation naming and for generalized improvement to untreated pictures. However, no generalization to connected speech was seen on the measures of mean words per minute, mean correct information units per minute, or the percentage of all words that were correct information units.