title: Transient phonemic paraphasia by bilateral hippocampus lesion in a case of limbic encephalitis.
abstract: Although the hippocampus has not typically been identified as part of the language and aphasia circuit, recent evidence suggests that the hippocampus is closely related to naming, word priming, and anomic aphasia. A 59-year old woman with limbic encephalitis of possible autoimmune etiology, after recovery of consciousness, presented with severe memory impairment in both anterograde and retrograde modalities, episodes of fear, hallucination and convulsion, and transient fluent, phonemic paraphasia, together with small sharp waves diffusely by EEG. Brain MRI revealed bilateral symmetric, discrete lesions in the body to the infundibulum of the hippocampus.The transient phonemic paraphasia noted in our patient may have been a result of primary damage in the hippocampus and its fiber connection to the Wernicke's area or secondary partial status epilepticus that might have originated in the hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Neurology Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Sakura Medical Center, Toho University, Sakura, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: Ryuji
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakakibara
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ogata
authors.forename: Emina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ogawa