Treating Intention In Aphasia: Neuroplastic Substrates

The purpose of this study is to determine if an "intentional act" improves treatment response for patients with nonfluent aphasia. The treatment involves naming pictures and saying members of categories. The "intentional act" requires initiating picture naming or category member trials with a left-hand movement sequence. Nonfluent aphasia is a disorder of language production in which patients with damage to the brain's language system have trouble initiating and maintaining spoken communication. All patients participating in the study take part in functional MRI scans to determine how treatments affect brain systems.