title: Classical anomia: a neuropsychological perspective on speech production.
abstract: We present data collected from two anomic aphasics. Thorough assessment of comprehension, oral reading and repetition revealed no underlying impairments suggesting that both patients were examples of classical anomia--word-finding difficulties without impaired semantics or phonology. We describe a series of experiments in which the degree of anomia was both increased and decreased, by cueing or priming with either a semantically related word or the target item. One of the patients also presented with an 'acquired' tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon. He was able to indicate with a high-degree of accuracy the syllable length of the target, and whether or not it was a compound word. Neither patient could provide the first sound/letter. The data are discussed in terms of discrete two-stage models of speech production, an interactive-activation theory and a distributed model in which the positive and negative computational consequences of the arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning are emphasised.
authors.affiliation: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK. matt.lambon-ralph@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lambon Ralph
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sage
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D020208:Brain Injury, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*