5 7. Dutta Et Al-2018-American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
5 7. Dutta Et Al-2018-American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
5 7. Dutta Et Al-2018-American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Research Article
Purpose: This study involved a scoping review to identify underrepresented. Most studies utilized aphasia tests and
possible gaps in the empirical description of language primarily assessed single-word productions; few studies
functioning in epilepsy in adults. With access to social included healthy control groups. Data mining revealed
network data, data mining was used to determine if several posts regarding epilepsy-related language problems,
individuals with epilepsy are expressing language-related including word retrieval, reading, writing, verbal memory
concerns. difficulties, and negative effects of epilepsy treatment on
Method: For the scoping review, scientific databases were language.
explored to identify pertinent articles. Findings regarding Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need for future
the nature of epilepsy etiologies, patient characteristics, specification of the integrity of language in epilepsy,
tested language modalities, and language measures particularly with respect to discourse and high-level
were compiled. Data mining focused on social network language abilities. Increased awareness of epilepsy-
databases to obtain a set of relevant language-related related language issues and understanding the patients’
posts. perspectives about their language concerns will allow
Results: The search yielded 66 articles. Epilepsy etiologies researchers and speech-language pathologists to utilize
except temporal lobe epilepsy and older adults were appropriate assessments and improve quality of care.
E
pilepsy is a recurring neurological condition affect- Elger, 2003; MacAllister & Schaffer, 2007; Rai et al., 2015).
ing approximately 2 million Americans with Of interest to speech-language pathology clinicians and
150,000 new cases each year (Epilepsy Statistics, researchers is that language deficits have also been frequently
2014). Nearly 2% of adults aged 18 years or older and 1% reported, which may fluctuate due to the nature and extent
of children under 17 years of age have a history of epi- of epilepsy or in response to corrective surgeries or medica-
lepsy, with highest epilepsy incidence among children and tions (e.g., Abou-Khalil & Abou-Khalil, 2015; Caplan et al.,
older adults. Extensive research has established that epi- 2009; Sherman et al., 2011).
lepsy alters cognition in children and adults, documenting Within the epilepsy research base, greater empirical
prevalent and persistent attention, memory, and executive attention has been thus far dedicated to describing lan-
function problems (e.g., Griffith, Martin, Bambara, Marson, guage functioning in children and adolescents as opposed
& Faught, 2006; Helmstaedter, Kurthen, Lux, Reuber, & to language functioning in adults, perhaps as a disturbance
to this domain can significantly impair learning, with long-
term effects on children’s academic performance and social-
a
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, emotional functioning (Caplan et al., 2009; Fastenau et al.,
Bloomington 2004; Hermann et al., 2008; Staden, Isaacs, Boyd, Brandl,
b
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western & Neville, 1998). Language disturbances are, however, fre-
University, London, Ontario, Canada quently observed in adults with epilepsy (e.g., Hamberger
c
School of Nursing, Indiana University, Bloomington & Seidel, 2003; Helmstaedter, Gleissner, Zentner, & Elger,
Correspondence to Manaswita Dutta: [email protected] 1998; Miller et al., 2016), but research for this age group
Editor: Krista Wilkinson remains incomplete, warranting a thorough investigation
Associate Editor: Daniel Kempler (Doering & Trinka, 2014). Therefore, the current study’s fo-
Received October 31, 2016 cus was limited to examining the language profiles of adults
Revision received June 9, 2017 with epilepsy.
Accepted August 29, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_AJSLP-16-0195
Publisher Note: This article is part of the Special Issue: Select Papers Disclosure: The authors have declared that no competing interests existed at the time
From the 46th Clinical Aphasiology Conference. of publication.
350 American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology • Vol. 27 • 350–378 • March 2018 • Copyright © 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
that allows users to post 140-character long messages); more specific phrases (e.g., “hard to remember words,”
these databases were used as they were the only ones the “difficulty during conversation,” “trouble thinking of
authors had permission to access. words,” “difficulty following a conversation”) helped in
The Word Adjacency Graph modeling, which is a better matching against the questions and comments avail-
social network analysis method, was implemented to ob- able in the data sets. Analysis also included identifying
tain a set of relevant questions from the three data sets, clusters of frequently discussed topics related to epilepsy-
recorded between 2009–2012, 2004–2015, and June 2014 related language problems from the text in the available
to March 2016, respectively. An initial list of keywords/ databases. Information regarding the geographic location,
phrases was generated based on the terminology and age, and gender of users was also obtained from all data
expressions that have been commonly used to describe sets, when users indicated such details.
epilepsy-related language problems in research studies and
online forums for individuals with epilepsy. The list was
revised to filter the retrieved results and obtain a set of Results
posts that specifically pertained to epilepsy-related lan-
guage problems. The final list of words and phrases was Scoping Review Findings
then used against a preselected set of known epilepsy- Out of a total of 4,424 potentially relevant online re-
related questions only (see Figure 2). Using longer and cords, the titles and abstracts of 116 articles were screened
A Research design
The study objective was clearly stated.
The type of research was documented (i.e., case study, quasiexperimental, review, etc.).
Aims and design of the study set in the context of existing knowledge/understanding were
described clearly.
The rationale for the study, including how the design was related to the overall aims/objectives
of the study, was clearly outlined.
The test / intervention was clearly described and delivered consistently across the study population.
The outcome measures were prespecified, clearly defined, valid, reliable, and assessed consistently
across all study participants.
B Participant recruitment and demographics
The process of participant recruitment and the selection criteria for the study were clearly stated.
Information regarding the nature and severity of epilepsy, age of onset, age at testing, and education
was provided to describe the participants included in the study.
The sample size was sufficiently large to provide confidence in findings (i.e., the total number of
participants included at least 20 individuals), and justification of sample size was provided.
C Data collection
The techniques and testing procedures used to collect the data were adequately documented to
the extent that replication would be possible.
The majority of the variables were assessed using standardized measures for which normative
data exist.
The outcome measures of interest were taken both before and after the intervention, and statistical
analysis was conducted to compare pre-to-post changes.
D Data analysis
The specific techniques used to analyze the date were outlined.
Presentation of observations and discussion of explanations were provided.
E Research findings
Findings/conclusions are supported by data/study evidence and are clearly linked to the purposes
of the study.
The findings help in identifying new areas for investigation.
Limitations of evidence and what remains unknown/unclear or the need for further information/research
were discussed
TOTAL SCORE /17
Note. Adapted from Spencer et al. (2003; Copyright © 2003 Crown) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of
Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2014).
for eligibility based on the a priori inclusionary/exclusionary studies received low scores in terms of research design
criteria (see Figure 1). Common reasons for exclusion in- and data collection (e.g., Davies, Hermann, & Wyler,
cluded the following: (a) focus on language lateralization 1997; Howell, Saling, Bradley, & Berkovic, 1994; Perrone-
versus description of the integrity of language abilities; Bertolotti, Zoubrinetzky, Yvert, Le Bas, & Baciu, 2012).
(b) failure to include assessments that specifically tested The processes of participant recruitment and selection
language functions and instead use only a basic evaluation were not clearly stated (e.g., Hermann, Wyler, Steenman,
of cognitive function, such as the Mini-Mental State Exam- & Richey, 1988; Langfitt & Rausch, 1996), particularly in
ination (Folstein, Folstein, McHugh, & Fanjiang, 2001) studies that also failed to document research design (e.g.,
or the Dementia Rating Scale (Mattis, 1988); and (c) the case study, quasiexperimental, review). The sample size
participant sample did not include adults. A final 49 studies of some studies was small (n < 20), limiting confidence in
passed the screening process. With the additional 17 articles findings (e.g., Bartha et al., 2004; Hermann & Wyler, 1988;
included from hand searching references of retrieved arti- Minkina et al., 2013). In terms of data collection, a few
cles, a total of 66 articles regarding language disorders in studies did not incorporate standardized language mea-
the context of adult epilepsy were included in the scoping sures (e.g., Bell, Seidenberg, et al., 2003; Hamberger &
review (see Table 2). Seidel, 2003; Hamberger & Tamny, 1999), and some scored
a “0” as they did not assess language outcomes before
Methodological Quality Assessment and after the intervention, instead only completing a
The 66 reviewed articles represented a range of study posttreatment evaluation (e.g., Glosser & Donofrio, 2001;
designs (e.g., case studies, cross-sectional, prospective). The Helmstaedter et al., 1998; Schwarz & Pauli, 2009). A num-
average quality rating score was 15.8/17 (range = 11–17): ber of studies failed to summarize their study limitations
23 received a full score, 24 received 16/17, and the remain- and highlight areas in need of further investigation (e.g.,
ing 19 received a score of 15 or less (see Table 3). Many Loddenkemper et al., 2004; Sadiq et al., 2012).
Hermann & ATL of dominant ATL of nondominant MAE-COWAT, Visual naming, Pre-op: dominant temporal
Wyler (1988) lobe (n = 15) lobe (n = 14) Token Test sentence lobe foci associated
Mean age of onset 13.5 18.4 repetition, with poorer language
Mean age 31.3 36.5 oral spelling, function
Education 12.4 11.9 auditory Post-op: dominant ATL
Gender (M/F) 7/8 5/9 comprehension group performed poorly
(words/phrases), on all language tests
reading
comprehension
(words and
phrases)
Hermann TLE (n = 25) MAE, Token Visual naming, Visual naming, verbal
et al. (1988) Test sentence fluency and auditory
repetition, comprehension scores—
oral spelling, most powerful predictors
auditory of verbal memory and
comprehension learning performance
(words/phrases),
reading
comprehension
(words and
phrases),
verbal fluency
Stafiniak LT-ER LT-NER RT-ER RT-NER BNT Visual naming 6 out of 10 patients declined
et al. (1990) (n = 12) (n = 10) (n = 17) (n = 6) post left ATL in naming;
Mean age of onset 1 14.4 1.5 19.3 no decline in right ATL
Mean age 26.2 30.7 32.7 33.2 patients
Education 13.0 13.2 13.6 13.0
Gender (M/F) 6/6 6/4 9/8 3/3
Hermann ATL of dominant MAE, Token Visual naming, No significant language loss
et al. (1991) lobe (n = 29) Test sentence noted post-op; significant
ATL of nondominant repetition, improvement in receptive
lobe (n = 35) oral spelling, language
auditory
comprehension,
reading
comprehension
(table continues)
Table 2. (Continued).
Table 2. (Continued).
Table 2. (Continued).
Table 2. (Continued).
Trebuchon-Da LTLE RTLE Stimuli developed Word fluency, LTLE worse than RTLE;
Fonseca et al. (n = 28) (n = 15) by authors, word and lexical access difficulty
(2009) Mean onset age 18 16 Token test sentence
Mean age 42 34 repetition,
Gender (M/F) 9/18 10/11 visual naming
Education Level 1(14); Level 1(6);
Level 2(7); Level 2(5);
Level 3(6) Level 3(3)
Hamberger Left MTLE Right MTLE BNT, ANT, VNT Auditory and Left MTLE: decline in
et al. (2010) (n = 25) (n = 20) subtest of the visual naming visual but not auditory
Mean age 38.9 37 MAE naming; RTLE better
Education 14.7 15.2 than LTLE on auditory
Gender (M/F) 7/18 10/11 naming; RTLE = LTLE
on visual naming
Ramirez et al. FLE Left Right MTLE BNT, MAE-COWAT, Visual naming, Left MTLE = FLE (across
(2010) (n = 30) MTLE (n = 34) Token Test word fluency, all language measures);
(n = 43) auditory right MTLE-intact
Mean age 33.4 40.6 38.3 comprehension language
Education 13.6 12.9 13.8 Depression associated
with worse language
performance
Yogarajah LTLE RTLE (n = 20) McKenna Graded Visual naming, Structural reorganization
et al. (2010) (n = 26) Naming Test, letter fluency following ATL resection,
Mean age 37 37 Verbal Fluency which may damage
Gender 10 (M)/16 (F) 8 (M)/12 (F) Test dorsolateral language
pathway
Lomlomdjian LTLE RTLE (n = 13) BNT, ANT Visual and auditory Significantly lower BNT
et al. (2011) (n = 13) naming and ANT scores for
Mean onset age 10 12.5 LTLE vs. RTLE; 1/3
Mean age 40.7 34.6 showed difficulty
Education 10 12.1 with word finding
Gender (M/F) 5/8 7/6 in spontaneous speech,
no differences between
auditory and visual
naming
Maeda & TLE (n = 1) Aphasia test Reading, writing, Alexia with agraphia
Ogawa (Japanese) visual naming, (in Kanji) due to TLE
(2011) calculation
questions
Wang et al. TLE (n = 65) Modified MAE, Verbal fluency, 78% of TLE patients
(2011) Mean age of onset: 21.2 WAIS-III (Verbal visual naming, showed language
Mean age: 33.5 Comprehension auditory deficits
Education: 12.6 Index), Token comprehension
Test
Bonelli et al. LTLE (n = 24) RTLE (n = 20) McKenna Graded Visual naming, Greater naming decline in
(2012) Median onset age 6 12 Naming Test, verbal fluency LTLE post-op vs. RTLE
Gender 12(F)/12 (M) 13(F)/7 (M) Verbal Fluency
Test
(table continues)
Mean onset age 9.1 8.5 8.4 7.6 10.4 (post-op); Control
Mean age 36.8 36.6 36.5 35.3 37.2 group had significant
Gender 54% (F)/ 55% (F)/ 45% (F)/ 59% (F)/ 58% (F)/ declines in naming
46% (M) 45% (M) 55% (M) 41% (M) 42% (M) after surgery
Education 6.9 5.6 7.2 2.4 9.2
Gauffin et al. Patients with Healthy FAS, TLC Sentence repetition, GE: sentence repetition,
(2013) epilepsy controls (Swedish)- construction, construction, and
(n = 11) (n = 17) BeSS tasks comprehension, comprehension
Mean onset age 26.5 25.5 text comprehension problems
Mean age 24 ± 8 20 ± 7 GE = Healthy controls on
Education 13.2 13.2 text comprehension
Gender (M/F) 5/6 5/6
Janecek et al. Right ATL (n = 10) BNT Visual naming Left ATL patients with
(2013) Left ATL (n = 12) bilateral language at
greatest risk for naming
decline vs. right ATL
patients
(table continues)
365
Table 2. (Continued).
Note. AAT = Aachener Aphasia Test (Huber et al., 1983); ACW = Auditory Comprehension Test for Words (Blanken, 1999); ANT = Action Naming Test (Hamberger & Tamny, 1999;
Hamberger & Seidel, 2003); AQ = aphasia quotient; ATL = anterior temporal lobectomy; AVSC = Auditory and Visual Speech Comprehension Test for Word Meaning (Blanken, 1996);
B/L = bilateral; BDAE = Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1972); BeSS = Bedomning av Subtila Sprakstorningar (Assessment of Subtle Language Deficits;
Laakso et al., 2000); BNT = Boston Naming Test; CFL = phonemic fluency test (Spreen & Strauss, 1991); COWAT = Controlled Oral Word Association Test from the MAE (Benton
et al., 1994); DOM = dominant lobe; DTLE = dominant temporal lobe epilepsy; ER = early risk for developing seizures; ETLE = extratemporal lobe epilepsy; F = female; FAS = Swedish version
of the COWAT (as in Gauffin et al., 2013); FLE = frontal lobe epilepsy; FLR = frontal lobe resection; fMRI = functional magnetic resonance imaging; f/u = follow-up; GCI = global cognitive
impairment; GE = generalized epilepsy; HS = hippocampal sclerosis; IBT = Innsbrucker Benenn Test (Bartha et al., 2001); L-ATL = left anterior temporal lobectomy; Lat/R = lateral/right;
LT = left; LTLE = lateral temporal lobe epilepsy; M = male; MAE = Multilingual Aphasia Examination (Benton et al., 1994); MCG = bedside aphasia screening test (Benson, 1985); MCI = mild
cognitive impairment; MLTLE = mesial lateral temporal lobe epilepsy; MTLE = mesial temporal lobe epilepsy; MWT-B = Mehrfachwahl-Wortschatz-Intelligenz Test (Lehrl, 2005); NDOM =
nondominant lobe; NDTLE = nondominant temporal lobe epilepsy; NER = not at early risk for developing seizures; NR = not reported; PGE = primary generalized epilepsy; PNES =
psychogenic nonepileptic seizures; PNT = Philadelphia Naming Test; R-ATL = right anterior temporal lobectomy; RT = right; RTLE = right hemisphere temporal lobe epilepsy;
SLAH = stereotactic laser amygdalohippocampotomy; TGB = tiagabine; TL = temporal lobe; TLC = Test of Language Competence (Wiig & Secord, 1989); TLE = temporal lobe
epilepsy; TPM = topiramate; ULD = Unverricht-Lundborg disease; VNT = Visual Naming Subtest of the MAE (Benton et al., 1994); WAB = Western Aphasia Battery; WAIS-III =
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (Wechsler, 1997); WPR = Word Production Test (Blanken et al., 1999); WRAT-R = Wide Range Achievement Test–Revised (Jastak
& Wilkinson, 1984).
367
33 55 50 62 59
43% 81% 74% 93% 88%
among individuals with TLE, but Hamberger et al. (2010) 1991). Seven studies included oral reading measures, with
identified no such deficits. Naming was most frequently evalu- compromised word and sentence reading performance
ated in terms of noun retrieval, with only one study (Glosser noted in TLE (e.g., Maeda & Ogawa, 2011; Paradiso,
& Donofrio, 2001) testing verb retrieval. Only four studies Hermann, Blumer, Davies, & Robinson, 2001). Writing
conducted qualitative analyses of naming errors, with seman- skills were assessed in four studies: In two investigations,
tic and phonemic paraphasias most frequently reported impaired sentence-level writing was identified in only par-
(Bartha et al., 2004; Fargo et al., 2005; Sadiq et al., 2012; ticipants with TLE (Maeda & Ogawa, 2011; Sadiq et al.,
Schefft, Testa, Dulay, Privitera, & Yeh, 2003). 2012).
Verbal fluency. Verbal fluency measures (i.e., phone- Repetition. Of the 15 studies examining repetition
mic, semantic, or both) were common, being used in 28 ar- skills, most (n = 10) reported word- and sentence-level
ticles; no study included an action word/verb fluency task. repetition deficits in TLE participants (e.g., Bartha et al.,
Both epilepsy as well as antiepilepsy medications were 2005; Loddenkemper et al., 2004), albeit similar problems
shown to negatively affect verbal fluency performance were also identified in other epilepsy types (e.g., FLE by
in at least some individuals. That is, some individuals gen- Rai et al., 2015; generalized epilepsy by Gauffin et al.,
erated significantly fewer category exemplars compared 2013).
to the established test norms (e.g., Bartha et al., 2004; Spoken discourse. Spoken discourse production was
Loddenkemper et al., 2004). In studies investigating effects studied using a combination of measures reflecting speech
of antiepileptic medications, individuals prescribed topiramate production abilities as well as use of linguistic structure
tended to demonstrate significantly lower verbal fluency and complexity. Three studies evaluated discourse produc-
scores compared to those patients not taking this medica- tion via cartoon story descriptions: Howell et al. (1994)
tion (e.g., Fritz et al., 2005; Witt, Elger, & Helmstaedter, evaluated the phonation times and pause durations of the
2013). In addition, Bartha et al. (2004) noted frequent ver- participants’ speech, whereas Field et al. (2000) and Bell,
bal perseverations in some individuals with epilepsy during Dow, et al. (2003) conducted more in-depth analyses in-
this task. Across epilepsy types, TLE patients were most af- cluding documenting speaking rate and time, word counts,
fected (e.g., McDonald et al., 2008; Trebuchon-Da Fonseca fluency, a noncommunicative index, core story compo-
et al., 2009). Verbal fluency was also negatively affected nents, and a total words-to-clause index. Bell, Dow, et al.
in FLE (e.g., Helmstaedter et al., 1998, reported mild dete- (2003) also examined procedural discourse in individuals
rioration in phonemic fluency ability in FLE vs. TLE). with TLE. Howell et al. (1994) and Bell, Dow, et al. (2003)
Auditory comprehension. Less than half of the studies documented mild narrative discourse deficits in partici-
(n = 22) examined auditory comprehension skills. Difficul- pants with TLE, characterized by longer pause durations,
ties with auditory comprehension of words, grammatically slower speaking rate, and inadequate descriptive detail com-
simple sentences, and more complex verbal material (e.g., pared to individuals with generalized epilepsy or healthy
Aachener Aphasic Comprehension subtest; Huber, Poeck, controls, respectively. Field et al. (2000), however, observed
Weniger, & Williams, 1983; Token Test) were most com- no such changes in their participants with TLE.
mon in TLE (e.g., Bartha et al., 2004; Fritz et al., 2005; Nine studies analyzed discourse data from semi-
Loddenkemper et al., 2004) and FLE (e.g., Ramirez et al., structured interviews (e.g., subtests from standardized
2010). Impairments, however, were inconsistent across stud- aphasia tests, part of a routine neurological evaluation)
ies, with some researchers concluding that auditory com- and examined variables such as overall communicative
prehension is unaffected in epilepsy (e.g., Kho et al., 2008; effectiveness, articulation, prosody, speech automatisms,
Sadiq et al., 2012). syntactic structure, word retrieval difficulties, and infor-
Reading and written language skills. Across studies, mativeness. The findings were inconsistent across these
reading and writing were infrequently examined. Among the studies. For example, whereas two studies identified labored
three studies that evaluated reading comprehension of words and mildly nonfluent spoken output in TLE (Loddenkemper
and phrases, two identified mild difficulties among partic- et al., 2004; Sadiq et al., 2012), Perrone-Bertolotti et al.
ipants with TLE (Hermann, Seidenberg, Schoenfeld, & (2012) found no such problems before or after surgery for
Davies, 1997; Hermann & Wyler, 1988), whereas the third TLE. Uniquely, Lomlomdjian et al. (2011) designed a ques-
study found no such deficits (Hermann, Wyler, & Somes, tionnaire to evaluate the perception of spontaneous speech
Figure 3. Discussion topics identified through Word Adjacency Graph Modeling clustering analysis.