This study investigated two mechanism-based treatments for expressive
aprosodia, a disturbance in emotional prosody thought to be governed by
the right hemisphere. The 3 participants all suffered right CVA's
resulting in expressive aprosodia. Presence of expressive aprosodia was
determined by performance on two batteries of emotional communication.
A single subject ABAC design was employed in which two treatments, one
imitative and one cognitive linguistic, were assigned in random order.
All participants in this study were randomly assigned to begin with the
cognitive linguistic treatment. Probes of treated and untreated
emotions were completed during baseline and therapy phases. Probe items
were judged by a reliable, trained rater blind to time of testing.
Visual and statistical analyses were completed. These analyses
confirmed that both treatments were active. For example, effect size
calculations confirmed modest to substantial treatment effects for both
treatments in all 3 patients. Replication to increase confidence about
treatment effect and enhance understanding of the neuromechanisms
underlying aprosodia is underway. (JINS, 2004, 10,
786–793.)