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. 2022 Nov 7;15(3):e28.
doi: 10.12786/bn.2022.15.e28. eCollection 2022 Nov.

The Relationship Between Visuoconstructive Abilities and Language Performance in Patients With Aphasia After Stroke

Yu Mi Hwang  1 , Hoyoung Yi  2 , Jae-Ik Lee  3 , Sung-Bom Pyun  1   3   4
Affiliations

The Relationship Between Visuoconstructive Abilities and Language Performance in Patients With Aphasia After Stroke

Yu Mi Hwang et al. Brain Neurorehabil. .

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the visuoconstructive abilities and the relationship between visuoconstructive function and language performance in aphasic patients. Right-handed 24 aphasic patients (males 14, females 10) with at least 3 months post-stroke and 32 age-matched healthy controls participated in this study. Visuoconstructive function was assessed by 3 levels of task difficulty: simple (drawing objects), intermediate (clock drawing), and complex (copy subtest of Rey complex figure test and block construction). Aphasic patients were divided into 3 sub-groups (mild, moderate to severe, and very severe group) according to severity of aphasia and compared with the control group, respectively. We analyzed the relation all levels of visuoconstructive tasks to aphasia quotient (AQ) and sub-domain scores of K-WAB. Moderate to severe aphasia group demonstrated no significant differences in scores of simple drawing objects compared to controls, but clock drawing, Rey complex figure copy and block design showed significantly decreased scores. Very severe group showed significantly lower scores in all levels of visuoconstructive tasks than the control. Correlation between all levels of visuoconstructive tasks except drawing objects and AQ were found to be statistically significant. Among the tasks, the clock drawing test revealed the highest correlation with language performance. Visuoconstructive abilities varied according to the severity of aphasia and the level of visuoconstructive tasks. Therefore, a thorough individual assessment of visuoconstructive function is needed to plan and predict the treatment and prognosis of aphasia and the clock drawing test may be a useful screening tool to evaluate this function.

Keywords: Aphasia; Apraxia; Cognitive Dysfunction; Stroke; Visual Construction.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The corresponding author of this manuscript is an editor of Brain & NeuroRehabilitation. The corresponding author did not engage in any part of the review and decision-making process for this manuscript. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Scatterplot matrix of correlation.
AQ, aphasia quotient; RCFT, Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test; RCPM, Raven Colored Progressive Matrices.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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