Effect of Music on Reading Comprehension for Patients With Aphasia

This investigation uses a single-subject, adapted alternating research design to compare two different experimental conditions using music with lyrics combined with visual stimulation of the written lyrics, to extend the emotional word effect to phrases, in order to stimulate reading comprehension of the trained material for patients with aphasia. The two music conditions include 1) music with sung lyrics simultaneously with silent reading of the written lyrics; and 2) music with sung lyrics, followed by silent reading of the written lyrics (i.e. priming with the music). A control set without music will be used additionally within every third session to detect potential history and maturation effects. All conditions will be followed by a silent reading phrase-completion task composed of written words from the total combined sets of stimuli.