Aphasia is an acquired impairment of language functions resulting from a brain lesion. It is usually accompanied by deficits in non-linguistic cognitive processes. This study aimed to investigate in patients with aphasia the complex interrelationships between selected cognitive functions: auditory speech comprehension, working memory (WM), and temporal information processing (TIP) in the millisecond time range. Thirty right-handed subjects (20 males) aged from 27 to 82 years suffering from post-stroke aphasia participated in the study. Verbal working memory (VWM) and spatial working memory (SWM) were assessed with: (1) a receptive verbal test and (2) the Corsi Block-Tapping Test, respectively. Both these WM tests used the forward tasks (mainly engaging maintenance processes, i.e., storing, monitoring, and matching information) and backward tasks (engaging both maintenance and manipulation processes, i.e., reordering and updating information). Auditory comprehension was assessed by receptive language tests, and TIP efficiency was assessed by auditory perception of temporal order in the millisecond time range. We observed better performance of forward WM tasks than backward ones, independently of the type of material used. Furthermore, the severity of auditory comprehension impairment correlated with the efficiency on both forward and backward VWM tasks and the backward SWM task. Further analysis revealed that TIP plays a crucial role only in the latter task. These results indicate the divergent pattern of interactions between WM and TIP depending on the type of WM tasks. Level of verbal competency appeared to play an important role in both VWM tasks, whereas TIP (which is associated with manipulation processes) appeared to be important for SWM, but only on the backward task.

中文翻译：

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失语症的工作记忆：时间信息处理的作用

失语症是由脑损伤引起的语言功能的后天损害。它通常伴随着非语言认知过程的缺陷。本研究旨在研究失语症患者选定的认知功能之间的复杂相互关系：听觉言语理解、工作记忆 (WM) 和毫秒时间范围内的时间信息处理 (TIP)。30 名患有中风后失语症的 27 至 82 岁的右手受试者（20 名男性）参与了这项研究。语言工作记忆 (VWM) 和空间工作记忆 (SWM) 分别通过以下方式评估：(1) 接受性语言测试和 (2) Corsi Block-Tapping 测试。这两个 WM 测试都使用了前向任务（主要涉及维护过程，即存储、监控、和匹配信息）和反向任务（涉及维护和操作过程，即重新排序和更新信息）。听觉理解通过接受性语言测试来评估，TIP 效率通过毫秒时间范围内时间顺序的听觉感知来评估。我们观察到前向 WM 任务的性能优于后向 WM 任务，这与使用的材料类型无关。此外，听觉理解障碍的严重程度与前向和后向 VWM 任务以及后向 SWM 任务的效率相关。进一步的分析表明，TIP 仅在后一项任务中发挥关键作用。这些结果表明 WM 和 TIP 之间交互的不同模式取决于 WM 任务的类型。