title: Perseveration in two aphasic patients.
abstract: In this paper we report the perseverative behavior of two aphasic patients, AB and MT. They were submitted to a standardized Language Examination and to verbal and nonverbal tasks designed to elicit perseveration. Some of the features pointed out in the literature were not confirmed. Perseveration was not semantically related to the target; a correct response did not have any special status; in many instances the perseveration had not been produced as a correct response and could reappear immediately or after many stimuli; the production of two consecutive correct responses did not inhibit the spontaneous recurrences and could again be followed by the perseveration of a previous wrong response. Perseveration did not set in in the same circumstances for the two patients: in AB it set in when the patient was unable to find the correct response; MT, on the contrary, while knowing the correct response, was unable to change her perseverative behavior from one response to the other. For both patients, however, it seems as if no inhibitory system stops pre-existing motor or verbal behavior.
authors.affiliation: Neurological Clinic, San Paolo Hospital.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papagno
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basso
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001037:Aphasia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed