Speech and language in primary progressive anarthria.
We describe a patient with a progressive loss of speech up to muteness due to frontal atrophy. The clinical and neuropsychological examination documented a severe progressive articulatory disorder associated with a mild language deficit consisting of agrammatic production and spelling errors. Investigation of the patient's auditory-verbal short-term memory system revealed a selective impairment of the articulatory rehearsal system (covert re-circulation of verbal information), suggesting that not only overt but also covert articulation is impaired in this pathology. The conclusion is drawn that pure anarthria is a disorder of executive aspects of language. The hypothesis is advanced that language deficits such as spelling errors and agrammatic features might be due to ineffective covert articulation.
Silveri
Maria Caterina
MC
Institute of Neurology, Catholic University, Rome, Italy. silveri@rm.unicatt.it
Cappa
Antonella
A
Salvigni
Bruna Lorena
BL
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001284:Atrophy; D003071:Cognition; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology