The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Mechanisms of naming facilitated by initial kana letter cueing: A study in two aphasic patients who showed naming difficulty after initial phonological cueing
Language	J
AuthorList	Kazuhiro Wakamatsu¹⁾²⁾, Sumio Ishiai²⁾
Affiliation	¹⁾Division of Rehabilitation, Sapporo Medical University Hospital ²⁾Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 34 (4), 299-309, 2018
Received	Apr 3, 2017
Accepted	Jul 30, 2018
Abstract	In anomia of aphasic patients, not only phonological cueing but also letter cueing may facilitate the naming of objects. In Japanese, all words are able to be written in kana (syllabograms). Kana has two variations of character-form, i.e., hiragana and katakana, and the individual words are usually written in hiragana or katakana according to their attributes: e.g., katakana is used for words from foreign origin. We investigated whether aphasic patients recalled the target word more frequently when given its initial kana visually than when given its initial syllable phonologically. In particular about the initial kana, we focused on differences between the character-forms typically and atypically used in the writing of the target words. Case1 was a right-handed Japanese male in his 30s who showed aphasia after resection of a tumor in the left temporal lobe. Case 2 was a right-handed Japanese female in her 60s who showed aphasia after drainage of an abscess in the left temporal lobe. In the naming of objects, we tested whether the effect of letter cueing would be different between typical and atypical character-forms, when compared with phonological cueing. In the ordinary naming task, they said nothing or showed semantic paraphasia. They presented better performance when they were given the letter cueing in the typical character-form. Their performance in reading letter cueing and repetition phonological cueing were preserved. Errors of naming in the two patients suggested impaired access from the semantic memory to the phonological output lexicon. We consider that the letter cueing facilitated the naming of the two patients via the visual lexical routes and the phonological routes after semantic identification of the objects. In Japanese cases with aphasia after temporal lobe damage, studies with the use of kana letter cueing may contribute to elucidating the mechanisms underlying the impaired naming of objects.
Keywords	initial letter cueing, initial phonological cueing, naming, aphasia, left temporal lobe