Cortical activity during narrative discourse production in individuals with post-stroke aphasia and controls measured via functional near-infrared spectroscopy

fNIRS shows greater oxygenated hemoglobin activity during computer-based narrative production than counting aloud in bilateral frontal and temporal ROIs, with group differences in right frontal and left temporal areas.

• Why it matters: Aphasia research often targets word-level tasks, leaving discourse-level neural mechanisms less understood for ecologically valid functional impairment after stroke.
• What they did: Oxygenated hemoglobin was recorded with fNIRS from bilateral frontal, temporal, and parietal cortex while 17 individuals with post-stroke aphasia and 14 young neurotypical participants produced narratives after short video clips, compared with counting aloud. In-task behavioral measures were correlated with averaged HbO.
• The result: Condition-related effects differed by group: in left temporal ROI only young neurotypical participants showed a condition effect, while right frontal ROI showed condition effects in both young neurotypical participants and individuals with aphasia, with distinct activity–performance relationships. This supports using fNIRS for discourse tasks in post-stroke aphasia.

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