Effects of the anomia therapy on the default mode and the language networks of the brain: An functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study

Elucidating the mechanisms of successful word retrieval by anomia therapy could improve our knowledge about language processing and also help design effective treatments. The two main subcomponents of resting-state networks related to language processing are the default mode network (DMN) and the language network (LN). To study how changes in brain activation occur due to anomia therapy, we investigated pre-and-post changes in the DMN and LN activation nodes in a deficit-based treatment of 15 persons with aphasia (PWAs). In this method, seven participants (mean age 46.71 ± 8.99) with predominant semantic type errors received the semantic feature analysis (SFA) treatment approach, and 8 participants (mean age 46.5 ± 10.47) with mostly phonological type errors were treated with phonological components analysis (PCA) intervention. Both treatments improved word retrieval and had generalization effects on the language function. Increased activation in frontoparietal areas was observed after PCA therapy, while naming improvement after SFA was associated with increased activation in frontotemporal areas. These findings show that focusing on the impaired level of word retrieval processing may also be associated with changes in activation in brain areas related to that impaired level. Future studies could investigate the DMN and LN networks of the resting state-functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to understand the mechanisms involved in aphasia therapy.