| Language | Cantonese |
| Inclusion criteria | — |
| Number of individuals with aphasia | 7 |
| Number of control participants | 0 |
| Were any of the participants included in any previous studies? | No |
| Is age reported for patients and controls, and matched? | Yes (mean 63 ± 10 years, range 56-79 years) |
| Is sex reported for patients and controls, and matched? | Yes (males: 5; females: 2) |
| Is handedness reported for patients and controls, and matched? | Yes (right: 7; left: 0) |
| Is time post stroke onset reported and appropriate to the study design? | Yes (mean 17 ± 8 months, range 8-28 months) |
| To what extent is the nature of aphasia characterized? | Severity only |
| Language evaluation | Cantonese Aphasia Battery (modified WAB) |
| Aphasia severity | 5 patients had AQ > 75, 2 had AQ < 30 |
| Aphasia type | Not stated |
| First stroke only? | Yes |
| Stroke type | Ischemic only |
| To what extent is the lesion distribution characterized? | Location only |
| Lesion extent | Not stated |
| Lesion location | 3 L MCA, 2 L frontal, 2 L basal ganglia |
| Participants notes | — |
| Modality | fMRI |
| Is the study cross-sectional or longitudinal? | Longitudinal—chronic treatment |
| If longitudinal, at what time point(s) were imaging data acquired? | T1: pre-treatment/chronic; T2: post-treatment, ~10 weeks later |
| If longitudinal, was there any intervention between the time points? | Acupuncture, 3 sessions/week, 8 weeks |
| Is the scanner described? | No (not stated) |
| Is the timing of stimulus presentation and image acquisition clearly described and appropriate? | No (inconsistent information regarding timing) |
| Design type | Block |
| Total images acquired | 90? |
| Are the imaging acquisition parameters, including coverage, adequately described and appropriate? | Yes (whole brain) |
| Is preprocessing and intrasubject coregistration adequately described and appropriate? | Yes |
| Is first level model fitting adequately described and appropriate? | Yes |
| Is intersubject normalization adequately described and appropriate? | No (lesion impact not addressed) |
| Imaging notes | — |
| Language condition | Answering questions from Cantonese Aphasia Battery |
| Control condition | Visual decision |
| Are the conditions matched for visual demands? | No |
| Are the conditions matched for auditory demands? | No |
| Are the conditions matched for motor demands? | Yes |
| Are the conditions matched for cognitive/executive demands? | No |
| Is accuracy matched between the language and control tasks for all relevant groups? | N/A, tasks not comparable |
| Is reaction time matched between the language and control tasks for all relevant groups? | N/A, tasks not comparable |
| Behavioral data notes | — |
| Are control data reported in this paper or another that is referenced? | No |
| Does the contrast selectively activate plausible relevant language regions in the control group? | Unknown |
| Are activations lateralized in the control data? | Unknown |
| Control activation notes | — |
| Contrast notes | — |
| First level contrast | Answering questions from Cantonese Aphasia Battery vs visual decision |
| Analysis class | Longitudinal correlation with language or other measure |
| Group(s) | Aphasia T2 vs T1 |
| Covariate | Δ WAB AQ |
| Is the second level contrast valid in terms of the group(s), time point(s), and measures involved? | Somewhat (no treatment effect) |
| Is accuracy matched across the second level contrast? | Unknown, not reported |
| Is reaction time matched across the second level contrast? | Unknown, not reported |
| Behavioral data notes | — |
| Type of analysis | Voxelwise |
| Search volume | Whole brain |
| Correction for multiple comparisons | Unclear or not stated |
| Software | SPM2 |
| Voxelwise p | — |
| Cluster extent | — |
| Statistical details | Stated to be corrected p < 0.05, but the nature of correction is not described; it is not entirely clear whether the functional measure was the difference between T1 and T2 (we assume it is); it is also not clear whether or not 2 patients with low AQ were excluded (we assume not) |
| Findings | ↑ L posterior MTG |
| Findings notes | Finding based on table; additional small activations are shown in figure but not table |
