Why should recovery be a cause for concern? An investigation of an unusualpattern of recovery in a man with aphasia

A man with dysphasia who showed an unusual pattern of recovery 11 months po st-stroke is described. Models of brain recovery are used to try and explai n the rapid improvement in his language functioning following heart failure . Assessments were administered at three separate phases: pre-heart failure , and one and two months post-heart failure. The results demonstrate that t here was significant improvement in some tasks but not others: the pattern could be attributed to more effective semantic processing. The findings sug gest that further investigation of clients with delayed improvements might help us understand the brain mechanisms underlying language recovery.