Auditory-verbal short-term memory impairments are part and parcel of aphasia and interfere with linguistic processing. To date, the science about short-term memory impairments in aphasia has been generated and dominated by studying measures of accuracy, that is, span length. Because accuracy is expressed through speech, examining the speech-timing characteristics of persons with aphasia as they engage in spoken recall could reveal insights about the manner in which accuracy is achieved. Six speech-timing measures (e.g., response durations, pause durations) were elicited from the speech waveform of word span tasks from twelve people with aphasia. Speech-timing measures were compared to neuro-typical control participants. Speech-timing performance between erroneous and correct responses in the aphasia group was also examined. Across all measures, people with aphasia produced considerably longer speech-timing patterns in comparison to control participants. Memory load affected some measures in people with aphasia and control participants. Speech-timing in correct response trials was shorter than responses in erroneous trials. Memory span correlated only with one measure, namely, speech time (defined as the sum of each individual word duration in a response). Speech time also correlated with the following measures: Aphasia severity (Aphasia Quotient of the Western Aphasia Battery), spontaneous speech, and language comprehension (also measured by the Western Aphasia Battery). Some protracted speech-timing patterns in the aphasia group may be explained by a deregulation of activation-decay patterns. However, in the absence of further evidence from people with aphasia, possible issues around the sensitivity of some speech-timing measures limit firmer conclusions. Speech-timing measures are response-time measures, which have not been systematically studied in studies of short-term or working memory in aphasia and as such, can push the current boundaries of knowledge of short-term and working memory impairments in aphasia, not only in stroke related aphasia but also other neurological conditions.

中文翻译：

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失语症的短期记忆广度：来自语音时间测量的见解

听觉-语言短期记忆障碍是失语症的重要组成部分，会干扰语言处理。迄今为止，关于失语症短期记忆障碍的科学已经产生并主要通过研究准确性的测量，即跨度长度。由于准确性是通过言语表达的，因此检查失语症患者在进行言语回忆时的言语时间特征可以揭示有关实现准确性的方式的见解。从 12 名失语症患者的单词跨度任务的语音波形中引出六项语音计时措施（例如，响应持续时间、暂停持续时间）。语音计时措施与神经典型的控制参与者进行了比较。还检查了失语组中错误和正确反应之间的语音计时性能。在所有措施中，与对照组参与者相比，失语症患者产生了相当长的讲话时间模式。记忆负荷影响了失语症患者和对照组参与者的一些措施。正确反应试验中的讲话时间比错误试验中的反应要短。记忆跨度仅与一项测量相关，即语音时间（定义为响应中每个单词持续时间的总和）。言语时间还与以下指标相关：失语严重程度（西部失语症电池的失语商数）、自发讲话和语言理解（也由西部失语症电池测量）。失语症组中一些长期的言语计时模式可以用激活-衰减模式的放松管制来解释。然而，在没有来自失语症患者的进一步证据的情况下，围绕某些演讲时间测量的敏感性可能存在的问题限制了更可靠的结论。语音时间测量是响应时间测量，尚未在失语症短期或工作记忆研究中进行系统研究，因此，可以突破失语症短期和工作记忆障碍的当前知识界限，而不是仅在与中风相关的失语症以及其他神经系统疾病中。