Cortical plasticity of language measured by EEG in a case of anomic aphasia

Aphasia is a neurological disorder caused by a left hemisphere damage which is generally followed by some degree of spontaneous or therapy induced language recovery. Identifying the mechanisms underlying this recovery is difficult, but determining the neural substrate of recovery and its relationship with specific aspects of word processing may provide cues for language intervention. This study explores the cortical dynamics of linguistic functions during the rehabilitation-induced recovery of language in a patient, CR, affected by anomic aphasia. To this aim we mapped the language-related cortical activity of CR by means of the slow cortical potentials before and after a rehabilitative training. Thus, the first EEG measure showed the dysfunctional cortical networks related to the anomic disease and the second EEG revealed the new cortical circuits underlying the functional recovery.