title: Acoustic features of palilalia: a case study.
abstract: While a number of authors have suggested that patients with palilalia typically show a tendency to repeat words or phrases with an increasing rate, others maintain that an accelerating speech rate is not essential. The present paper reports the results of an instrumental analysis of the reiterations in a 60-year-old man with palilalia. Results indicate that there is not necessarily an increasing rapidity in palilalia. Duration of the repetition trains, duration of the pauses between the trains, and average number and average duration of the components within a train were variable but did not show a pattern indicative of a systematically increasing rate. The variation in the reiterations suggests that novel or varying motor processes are deployed to produce the elements in a sequence rather than an invariant motor program.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University Hospital, Belgium. john.vanborsel@ugent.be
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Borsel
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bontinck
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coryn
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Paemeleire
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandemaele
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement