Improving language without words: First evidence from aphasia

▶ Recent proposals in cognitive neuroscience claim that cognition is embodied, grounded in sensory-motor experiences and that there is a strong connection between language and action. ▶ Nevertheless, the extent to which this interaction works and the level of the language production system at which gestures might exert their influence is still unknown. ▶ The aim of our study was to determine whether observing gestures might have a role in promoting long-lasting recovery of lexical deficits in aphasic patients. ▶ We tested whether “observing” and/or “observing and executing” gestures would improve verb-finding difficulties in a group of anomic patients. To measure long-lasting beneficial effects, three follow-up sessions were carried out at one week, one month and two months after the end of each treatment condition. ▶ In the nonfluent patients, a long-lasting significant increase in verb accuracy occurred both when they were asked to observe the examiner really performing the action and when, after observing the examiner, they had to execute the action. Interestingly, no significant differences were found between these two procedures. ▶ In our knowledge, this is the first neuropsychological demonstration of improved language production resulting from the simple observation of actions. ▶ We believe that these data are potentially relevant for the readers of Neuropsychologia because they provide the strongest evidence to date that gestures interact with language and induce a lasting modification in the speech production system. Moreover, they are potentially relevant for planning new therapeutic interventions for language rehabilitation.