title: [Dominant Thalamus and Aphasia].
abstract: Many studies have shown that lesions of the dominant thalamus precipitate language disorders in a similar manner to transcortical aphasias, in a phenomenon known as "thalamic aphasia." In some cases, however, aphasia may not occur or may appear transiently following thalamic lesions. Furthermore, dominant thalamic lesions can produce changes in character, as observed in patients with amnesic disorder. Previous work has explored the utility of thalamic aphasia as a discriminative feature for classification of aphasia. Although the thalamus may be involved in the function of the brainstem reticular activating system and play a role in attentional network and in memory of Papez circuit or Yakovlev circuit, the mechanism by which thalamic lesion leads to the emergence of aphasic disorders is unclear. In this review, we we survey historical and recent literature on thalamic aphasia in an attempt to understand the neural processes affected by thalamic lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Therapy for Speech, Language and Hearing, Akita Prefectural Center for Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Medicine.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: Tatsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimomura
mesh_terms: D001037:Aphasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008032:Limbic System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*