Papers by Rhonda Friedman
Brain and Language, Oct 1, 1992
The role of spelling-to-sound correspondence rules in oral word reading was investigated by askin... more The role of spelling-to-sound correspondence rules in oral word reading was investigated by asking patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and normal controls to read aloud pronounceable letter strings that do not happen to be real words. These pseudowords were of two types: those that have orthographically similar "neighbors," and those that have no neighbors. The patients with AD were mildly impaired relative to the normal controls in reading pseudowords with neighbors, but were markedly impaired in reading pseudowords with no neighbors. The results are interpreted as favoring a model of reading in which words and pseudowords are normally read via the same lexical mechanism. An ancillary route involving the conscious application of spelling-to-sound rules is available only to cognitively intact readers.
Thesis (Ph.D)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Psychology, 1978.MICROFICHE COPY A... more Thesis (Ph.D)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Psychology, 1978.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES.Vita.Bibliography: leaves 112-115.by Rhonda B. Friedman.Ph.
Neurocase, Jun 1, 1995
Abstract A patient with pure alexia was presented with a series of tachistoscopic tests involving... more Abstract A patient with pure alexia was presented with a series of tachistoscopic tests involving words, letters, pictures, and lines. Low level perceptual processing remained intact. A major deficit was revealed in the speed of identifying orthographic material. This ...
Neuropsychologia, 1982
The nature of the underlying causes of paralexias produced by a patient exhibiting the syndrome o... more The nature of the underlying causes of paralexias produced by a patient exhibiting the syndrome ofdeep dyslexia was explored by pairing an oral reading task with a picture matching task using the same words. The results suggested two causes of semantic paralexias: word retrieval difficulties and impaired concept arousal. Parallel deficits in language tasks not involving written words were found. It is suggested that the major component of the deep dyslexia syndrome may reflect a deficit which is not specific to the written modality.
Aphasiology, 2018
Background: Individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and their caregivers want to know ... more Background: Individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and their caregivers want to know what to expect so that they can plan support appropriately. The ability to predict decline in naming and semantic knowledge, and advise individuals with PPA and their caregivers regarding future planning, would be invaluable clinically.
Neurology
Background and Objectives Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative condition that... more Background and Objectives Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative condition that predominantly impairs language. Most investigations of how focal atrophy affects language consider 1 time point compared with healthy controls. However, true atrophy quantification requires comparing individual brains over time. In this observational cohort study, we identified areas where focal atrophy was associated with contemporaneous decline in naming in the same individuals. Methods Cross-sectional analyses–related Boston Naming Test (BNT) performance and volume in 22 regions of interests (ROIs) at each time point using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression. Longitudinal analysis evaluated changes in BNT performance and change in volume in the same ROIs. Results Participants (N = 62; 50% female; mean age = 66.8 ± 7.4 years) with PPA completed the BNT and MRI twice (mean = 343.9 ± 209.0 days apart). In cross-sectional left inferior frontal gyrus pars op...
Neuron, May 1, 2001
cessing (e.g., Price et al., 1999) generally focus on semantics, which refers to the meaning of w... more cessing (e.g., Price et al., 1999) generally focus on semantics, which refers to the meaning of words, and phonology, which concerns the relation of speech sounds to linguistic units (Caplan, 1992; Levelt, 1999). Based on the findings in investigations of single word
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Mar 1, 2000
& Brain activation studies of orthographic stimuli typically start with the premise that differen... more & Brain activation studies of orthographic stimuli typically start with the premise that different types of orthographic strings (e.g., words, pseudowords) differ from each other in discrete ways, which should be reflected in separate and distinct areas of brain activation. The present study starts from a different premise: Words, pseudowords, letterstrings, and false fonts vary systematically across a continuous dimension of familiarity to English readers. Using a one-back matching task to force encoding of the stimuli, the four types of stimuli were visually presented to healthy adult subjects while fMRI activations were obtained. Data analysis focused on parametric comparisons of fMRI activation sites. We did not find any region that was exclusively activated for real words. Rather, differences among these string types were mainly expressed as graded changes in the balance of activations among the regions. Our results suggest that there is a widespread network of brain regions that form a common network for the processing of all orthographic string types. &
The Journal of Neuroscience, May 6, 2019
Reading involves the rapid extraction of sound and meaning from print through a cooperative divis... more Reading involves the rapid extraction of sound and meaning from print through a cooperative division of labor between phonological and lexical-semantic processes. Whereas lesion studies of patients with stereotyped acquired reading deficits contributed to the notion of a dissociation between phonological and lexical-semantic reading, the neuroanatomical basis for effects of lexicality (word vs pseudoword), orthographic regularity (regular vs irregular spelling-sound correspondences), and concreteness (concrete vs abstract meaning) on reading is underspecified, particularly outside the context of strong behavioral dissociations. Support vector regression lesionsymptom mapping (LSM) of 73 left hemisphere stroke survivors (male and female human subjects) not preselected for stereotyped dissociations revealed the differential contributions of specific cortical regions to reading pseudowords (ventral precentral gyrus), regular words (planum temporale, supramarginal gyrus, ventral precentral and postcentral gyrus, and insula), and concrete words (pars orbitalis and pars triangularis). Consistent with the primary systems view of reading being parasitic on language-general circuitry, our multivariate LSM analyses revealed that phonological decoding depends on perisylvian areas subserving sound-motor integration and that semantic effects on reading depend on frontal cortex subserving control over concrete semantic representations that aid phonological access from print. As the first study to localize the differential cortical contributions to reading pseudowords, regular words, and concrete words in stroke survivors with variable reading abilities, our results provide important information on the neurobiological basis of reading and highlight the insights attainable through multivariate, process-based approaches to alexia.
Aphasiology, Mar 1, 1994
Page 1. APHASIOLOGY, 1994, VOL. 8, NO. 2, 181-195 Rationale and efficacy of a tactile kinaestheti... more Page 1. APHASIOLOGY, 1994, VOL. 8, NO. 2, 181-195 Rationale and efficacy of a tactile kinaesthetic treatment for alexia SUSAN NITZBERG LOTT, RHONDA B. FRIEDMANt and CRAIG W. LINEBAUGHS Department of Speech ...
Brain and Language, Dec 1, 2013
Anterior and posterior brain areas are involved in the storage and retrieval of semantic represen... more Anterior and posterior brain areas are involved in the storage and retrieval of semantic representations, but it is not known how these areas dynamically interact during semantic processing. We hypothesized that long-range theta-band coherence would reflect coupling of these areas and examined the oscillatory dynamics of lexical-semantic processing using a semantic priming paradigm with a delayed letter-search task while recording subjects' EEG. Timefrequency analysis revealed facilitation of semantic processing for Related compared to Unrelated conditions, which resulted in a reduced N400 and reduced gamma power from 150-450 ms. Moreover, we observed greater anterior-posterior theta coherence for Unrelated compared to Related conditions over the time windows 150-425 ms and 600-900 ms. We suggest that while gamma power reflects activation of local functional networks supporting semantic representations, theta coherence indicates dynamic coupling of anterior and posterior areas for retrieval and postretrieval processing and possibly an interaction between semantic relatedness and working memory.
Neurology, Jul 1, 1985
In pure alexia, reading is impaired despite almost normal speech, spelling, and writing. We studi... more In pure alexia, reading is impaired despite almost normal speech, spelling, and writing. We studied a right-handed man with pure alexia, but no hemianopia. He had more difficulty reading longer words (word-length effect), but had no selective reading impairment in phonologic or semantic analysis. Clinical-CT correlation suggests that (1) left hemisphere visual pathways crucial for reading arise from or pass close to the left occipitotemporal or inferior temporal gyrus, and (2) relevant transcallosal fibers from the right hemisphere course inferior to the posterior horn of the left lateral ventricle before ascending to left hemisphere language areas.
Brain and Language, 1996
Reports of five patients whose deep alexic reading all evolved into phonological alexia in a simi... more Reports of five patients whose deep alexic reading all evolved into phonological alexia in a similar fashion point to the hypothesis that deep alexia and phonological alexia represent different points on the same continuum. This hypothesis is explored further through an examination of previously published case reports of eleven patients with phonological alexia. Data from these patients suggest that there is a predictable succession of symptoms which form a continuum of severity of phonological alexia, with deep alexia as its endpoint. An account of the recovery from deep to phonological alexia, based upon a lexical (no-rules) model of reading, is provided (Glosser & Friedman, 1990), and the implications for therapy are considered. The significance of the notion of a continuum of phonological/deep alexia is discussed.
Cortex, Sep 1, 1990
Two patients exhibited all the characteristics of deep alexia shortly following brain injury. Bot... more Two patients exhibited all the characteristics of deep alexia shortly following brain injury. Both subsequently recovered some reading abilities and evolved to show a pattern of oral reading consistent with phonological alexia. These findings suggest that deep alexia and phonological alexia share common underlying deficits that are mediated by common neurological systems. A two-deficit psycholinguistic model is presented to account for the apparent continuity between deep alexia and phonological alexia.
Cortex, Jun 1, 1995
It is hypothesized, on the basis of a lexical model of reading, that there are two different unde... more It is hypothesized, on the basis of a lexical model of reading, that there are two different underlying causes of phonological alexia. It is predicted that these two types of phonological alexia will be accompanied by different sets of symptoms. Published cases of phonological alexia are examined for evidence in support of these predictions. Two distinct groups of phonological alexic patients are observed. These results support the notion of two types of phonological alexia. The failure to find any phonological alexic patients who do not fall into one of these two categories provides evidence against non-lexical reading models.
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Papers by Rhonda Friedman