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. 2024 Apr 12:15:1347514.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1347514. eCollection 2024.

Investigating silent pauses in connected speech: integrating linguistic, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical perspectives across narrative tasks in post-stroke aphasia

G Angelopoulou  1 , D Kasselimis  1   2 , M Varkanitsa  3 , D Tsolakopoulos  1 , G Papageorgiou  1 , G Velonakis  4 , E Meier  5 , E Karavassilis  4   6 , V Pantoleon  4 , N Laskaris  1   7 , N Kelekis  4 , A Tountopoulou  8 , S Vassilopoulou  8 , D Goutsos  9 , S Kiran  3 , C Weiller  10 , M Rijntjes  10 , C Potagas  1
Affiliations

Investigating silent pauses in connected speech: integrating linguistic, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical perspectives across narrative tasks in post-stroke aphasia

G Angelopoulou et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Silent pauses are regarded as integral components of the temporal organization of speech. However, it has also been hypothesized that they serve as markers for internal cognitive processes, including word access, monitoring, planning, and memory functions. Although existing evidence across various pathological populations underscores the importance of investigating silent pauses' characteristics, particularly in terms of frequency and duration, there is a scarcity of data within the domain of post-stroke aphasia.

Methods: The primary objective of the present study is to scrutinize the frequency and duration of silent pauses in two distinct narrative tasks within a cohort of 32 patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia, in comparison with a control group of healthy speakers. Subsequently, we investigate potential correlation patterns between silent pause measures, i.e., frequency and duration, across the two narrative tasks within the patient group, their performance in neuropsychological assessments, and lesion data.

Results: Our findings showed that patients exhibited a higher frequency of longer-duration pauses in both narrative tasks compared to healthy speakers. Furthermore, within-group comparisons revealed that patients tended to pause more frequently and for longer durations in the picture description task, while healthy participants exhibited the opposite trend. With regard to our second research question, a marginally significant interaction emerged between performance in semantic verbal fluency and the narrative task, in relation to the location of silent pauses-whether between or within clauses-predicting the duration of silent pauses in the patient group. However, no significant results were observed for the frequency of silent pauses. Lastly, our study identified that the duration of silent pauses could be predicted by distinct Regions of Interest (ROIs) in spared tissue within the left hemisphere, as a function of the narrative task.

Discussion: Overall, this study follows an integrative approach of linguistic, neuropsychological and neuroanatomical data to define silent pauses in connected speech, and illustrates interrelations between cognitive components, temporal aspects of speech, and anatomical indices, while it further highlights the importance of studying connected speech indices using different narrative tasks.

Keywords: dorsal stream; neuropsychological performance; picture description; post-stroke aphasia; silent pauses; stroke story; ventral stream.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Lesion maps overlay for the patients’ group (n = 32) are shown on axial (left) and 3D view (right) of the standard average SPM152 brain template.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Error bar charts indicating silent pauses’ duration in patients with aphasia and healthy participants in the two narrative tasks, picture description and personal story. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Error bar charts indicating silent pauses’ duration in patients with aphasia and healthy participants in the two narrative tasks, picture description and personal story. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effects plot for three-way interaction among narrative task, performance in SVF and silent pauses’ location with regard to clauses, predicting silent pauses’ duration.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effects plot for two-way interaction among narrative task and pars opercularis spared tissue (A) and inferior parietal lobe (B), predicting silent pauses’ duration.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effects plot for two-way interaction among narrative task and pars triangularis spared tissue (A) and insula (B), predicting silent pauses’ duration.
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