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A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Queen Margaret University

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assessment and treatment <strong>of</strong> emotional impairments and <strong>in</strong>form the decision as<br />

to when direct language therapy could commence.<br />

6.3.1.5 The impact <strong>of</strong> stage <strong>of</strong> recovery from stroke on the learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> new<br />

vocabulary<br />

The literature suggests some evidence for cortical plasticity occurr<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the<br />

chronic stage <strong>of</strong> recovery. This stage <strong>of</strong> recovery is normally considered to<br />

<strong>in</strong>volve the learn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> compensatory techniques rather than restoration <strong>of</strong><br />

language (see section 2.2.1). The number <strong>of</strong> months post-stroke was used to<br />

denote the recovery stage for each participant. The stages <strong>of</strong> recovery for<br />

participants <strong>in</strong> the ma<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>vestigation varied from five to 146 months post-stroke.<br />

As <strong>in</strong>dicated, this <strong>in</strong>vestigation predicted that as the bra<strong>in</strong> may be more<br />

biologically/ medically stable <strong>in</strong> the chronic stages <strong>of</strong> recovery it might have<br />

more potential for learn<strong>in</strong>g-related cortical plasticity (see section 5.4.2.1). The<br />

hypo<strong>thesis</strong> ‘the number <strong>of</strong> months post-stroke will correlate positively with the<br />

recall <strong>of</strong> new vocabulary’ was supported for both immediate (r = +.629; p

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