Low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to the right Broca mirror area for improving auditory comprehension in a sensory aphasia after stroke: a case report.

Aphasia is a common consequence of stroke and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may be a promising brain stimulation technique in the treatment of aphasia. However, there are few reports about the therapeutic effect of rTMS for Broca's area in patients with sensory aphasia. This study reported one stroke patient with sensory aphasia who received 6 treatment sessions of low-frequency rTMS before speech and language therapy. The target area was the Broca mirror area in the right hemisphere. After treatment, the auditory comprehension of the patient improved from 46 to 112, the naming improved from 18 to 32, and the AQ improved from 34.2 to 42.6. However, the level of functional language, spontaneous speech and repetition did not show obvious improvement.

Difficulty differentiating a case of posterior cortical atrophy from a psychogenic disturbance of vision.

Differentiating posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) from other diseases can be difficult and time-consuming, and there is a particularly high possibility of misdiagnosis when psychiatrists diagnose complaints related to visual perception. Here, a case of PCA involving prominent visual perceptual disorders is reported; PCA was difficult to distinguish from psychogenic disturbance of vision in this case. For a year, a 59-year-old woman had had visual perceptual disorders, including a distorted view and prosopagnosia. She underwent examinations at multiple clinical departments at several medical institutions before receiving a definitive diagnosis of PCA. This PCA diagnosis was based on clinical symptoms, including Gerstmann syndrome, Bálint's syndrome, and transcortical sensory aphasia, and hypoperfusion in the occipital lobe observed on single-photon emission computed tomography. This case was initially misdiagnosed as a psychogenic disease partly because characteristic clinical manifestations of PCA include visual agnosia with a disjunctive component. This patient displayed a disordered perception of stationary objects but an intact perception of moving objects. For example, she had to grope her way through a room at home, but she could visit a familiar hair salon on foot without hindrance. Behaviours like claiming to be blind while inexplicably moving without colliding with surrounding objects may lead to the misdiagnosis of PCA as a psychogenic or dissociative disorder involving histrionic or neurologically irrational symptoms with an expectation of sympathy or personal gain. It is critical to make every effort to exclude organic diseases, even in cases provisionally diagnosed as psychogenic disease. Despite its low prevalence, PCA should be considered a syndrome caused by Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, or other dementias.

Alteraciones del procesamiento preléxico en pacientes hispanohablantes con afasias sensoriales: evidencias neurolingüísticas / Prelexical processing alterations in hispanophone patients with sensitive aphasias: neurolinguistic evidences

La verificación empírica de modelos de conversión acústico-fonémica es una necesidad de la práctica de la neurolingüística en cualquier contexto para optimizar la explicación del patrón neurocognitivo de pacientes con alteraciones del procesamiento preléxico. Por tal razón, en esta investigación se caracterizan los procesos de conversión acústico-fonémica en pacientes hispanohablantes, con el objetivo de obtener y acumular evidencias empíricas que permitan verificar en esta población lingüística el modelo de procesamiento preléxico más aceptado actualmente. Para ello se realizó un estudio descriptivo-transversal, con la participación de 72 pacientes con afasia de comprensión pertenecientes a los Servicios de Logofoniatría de la ciudad de Santiago de Cuba, con edades de 20 a 65 años, y entre 60 y 180 días de recuperación del daño cerebral. Estos fueron sometidos al Test de discriminación fonológica, que es una adaptación local de la «Prueba de discriminación» del Test DIFO de Benedet y Cortés-del-Solar. Se obtuvo que las alteraciones del procesamiento de las características distintivas de los sonidos del habla se distinguen de las alteraciones de la integración perceptual de fonemas. En el primer caso, se registran fallos estables en la ejecución de tareas que implican el procesamiento de unos u otros rasgos distintivos de los sonidos consonánticos del habla, mientras se conserva el procesamiento de rasgos distintivos de los sonidos vocálicos, y viceversa. En el segundo caso, se observan fallos en el procesamiento, tanto de todos los rasgos distintivos de los sonidos consonánticos del habla, como de los rasgos distintivos de los sonidos vocálicos (AU)

The empirical verification of prelexical processing models is necessary for the neurolinguistic practices in any context for optimizing the explanations of neurocognitive model in aphasic patients with disorder in prelexical processing. For this reason, the present investigation shows the characterization of acoustic-phonemic conversion process in aphasic hispanophone patients. The study was executed with the purpose to accumulate and to obtain empirical evidences in this linguistic population, for the practical verification of the most accepted prelexical processing model. A descriptive-transversal study was conducted with the participation of 72 patients with sensitive aphasia, localized in the Phoniatry Services of Santiago de Cuba City, with ages between 20 and 65 years, and not more of 60 to 180 days of brain injury recovery period. The participants performed the Test de discriminación fonológica, that is a contextual adaptation of the task «Prueba de discriminación» of the Test DIFO of Benedet and Cortés-del-Solar. Results revealed that disorders in distinctive characteristics of speech sounds processing are different of phoneme perceptual integration disorders. In the first, affectation in the execution of tasks that implies the processing of some distinctive characteristics of consonant speech sounds was recorded, whereas the processing of other distinctive characteristics of vowel speech sounds are preserved. In the second affectation in the processing of all distinctive characteristics of speech sounds was observed (AU)

Typical and atypical appearance of early-onset Alzheimer's disease: A clinical, neuroimaging and neuropathological study.

The International Working Group (IWG) has classified Alzheimer's disease (AD) as two different types, the typical form and the atypical form, but clinicopathological studies of atypical AD are limited. Because atypical AD cases usually present with early-onset dementia, we investigated 12 patients with early-onset AD, including two patients with typical AD and 10 patients with atypical AD. Of these patients, six had the posterior variant, three had the frontal variant and one had the logopenic variant mixed with semantic dementia. We reported MRI, single-photon emission CT and neuropathological findings in six representative cases. We also described a "left temporal variant" of AD presenting with transcortical cortical sensory aphasia, which has not been reported previously and is another subtype of the posterior variant of AD. We found a significant correlation between regional cerebral blood flow and counts of NFTs in the cerebral cortices. An atypical presentation with focal neuropsychological symptoms roughly correlated with the density of NFTs in the cerebral cortex and more directly related to spongiform changes in the superficial layers of these areas. In contrast, the distribution of amyloid depositions was diffuse and did not necessarily correlate with focal neuropsychological symptoms. Braak staging or ABC score is not necessarily appropriate to evaluate atypical AD, and instead, spongiform changes in addition to tau pathology in the association cortices better explain the diversity of atypical AD. Interestingly, another patient with a posterior variant of AD had a novel type of atypical plaque, which we referred to as "lucent plaque". They were recognizable with HE staining in the circumference and dystrophic neurites were abundant with Gallyas-Braak staining. These plaques demonstrated intense immunoreactivity to both tau AT-8 and amyloid ß (Aß), suggesting a peculiar coexistence pattern of amyloid and tau in these plaques. Clinicopathological studies of atypical AD will provide a new understanding of the pathophysiology of AD.

Análisis instrumental de la marcha en pacientes con ictus / Instrumental gait analysis in stroke patients

Introducción. Las alteraciones en el control motor consecuentes al ictus afectan al patrón de marcha, existiendo una importante variabilidad intersujeto. Objetivos. Valorar, a través de un sistema de captura del movimiento, el patrón cinemático de la marcha en sujetos con ictus y establecer qué alteraciones del patrón de la marcha son comunes entre los participantes. Sujetos y métodos. Participaron nueve pacientes con ictus con capacidad de marcha y diez sujetos controles. Para la captura del movimiento se empleó el sistema VICON Motion System (R). Se analizaron los movimientos articulares de pelvis, cadera, rodilla y tobillo en el plano sagital, y los parámetros espaciotemporales de la marcha. Resultados. La función motora de los participantes, valorada mediante la escala Fügl-Meyer (sección del miembro inferior), osciló entre 15 y 33 puntos. Los participantes presentaron alteraciones en la cinemática comunes entre ellos. En los pacientes con ictus se registró: aumento de la amplitud de movimiento de la pelvis en ambos hemicuerpos (lado afecto y no afecto frente a control, p < 0,01); en la cadera, disminución de la máxima extensión durante la fase de apoyo en el lado afecto (p < 0,01) e incremento de la flexión en las fases de apoyo y oscilación en el no afecto (p = 0,025); en la rodilla, mayor flexión durante la fase de contacto inicial (lado afecto frente a control, p < 0,01; lado no afecto frente a control, p = 0,02); y en el tobillo, ligera flexión plantar durante la fase de contacto inicial en el lado afecto. Conclusiones. A pesar de la variabilidad clínica, existen alteraciones específicas comunes de la marcha en sujetos con ictus (AU)

Introduction. The motor control deficits after stroke affect the gait pattern. There is a significant variability between subjects. Aims. To analyse, by using a capture motion system, the gait pattern in stroke patients with different levels of motor function, and to establish, despite the participants heterogeneity, what alterations in the gait pattern are usual in each participant. Subjects and methods. Nine stroke subjects with independent gait and ten control subjects participated in this study. Motion capture was performed using the VICON Motion System (R). The motion of the pelvis, hip, knee and ankle were analyzed in the sagittal plane. Also, the spatio-temporal parameters of gait were observed. Results. The motor function evaluated using the Fügl-Meyer Assessment (lower limb section) varied between 15 and 33 points. Participants had alterations in the kinematic pattern which were common between each of them. In stroke patients it was observed: an increment of the pelvis range of motion in both sides; at the hip joint, a decrease of the maximum peak of extension during the stance phase in the affected side and a greater flexion during the stance and the swing periods in the non-affected side; at the knee, a major knee flexion during the initial contact; and at the ankle joint, an slight ankle plantar flexion during the initial contact on the affected side. Conclusions. There are several landmarks in stroke gait that the clinicians should keep attention during the walking observation (AU)

Acquired dyslexia in Serbian speakers with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia.

This study examined patterns of acquired dyslexia in Serbian aphasic speakers, comparing profiles of groups with Broca's versus Wernicke's aphasia. The study also looked at the relationship of reading and auditory comprehension and between reading comprehension and reading aloud in these groups. Participants were 20 people with Broca's and 20 with Wernicke's aphasia. They were asked to read aloud and to understand written material from the Serbian adaptation of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. A Serbian Word Reading Aloud Test was also used. The people with Broca's aphasia achieved better results in reading aloud and in reading comprehension than those with Wernicke's aphasia. Those with Wernicke's aphasia showed significantly more semantic errors than those with Broca's aphasia who had significantly more morphological and phonological errors. From the data we inferred that lesion sites accorded with previous work on networks associated with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia and with a posterior-anterior axis for reading processes centred on (left) parietal-temporal-frontal lobes.

Degenerative jargon aphasia: unusual progression of logopenic/phonological progressive aphasia?

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) corresponds to the gradual degeneration of language which can occur as nonfluent/agrammatic PPA, semantic variant PPA or logopenic variant PPA. We describe the clinical evolution of a patient with PPA presenting jargon aphasia as a late feature. At the onset of the disease (ten years ago) the patient showed anomia and executive deficits, followed later on by phonemic paraphasias and neologisms, deficits in verbal short-term memory, naming, verbal and semantic fluency. At recent follow-up the patient developed an unintelligible jargon with both semantic and neologistic errors, as well as with severe deficit of comprehension which precluded any further neuropsychological assessment. Compared to healthy controls, FDG-PET showed a hypometabolism in the left angular and middle temporal gyri, precuneus, caudate, posterior cingulate, middle frontal gyrus, and bilaterally in the superior temporal and inferior frontal gyri. The clinical and neuroimaging profile seems to support the hypothesis that the patient developed a late feature of logopenic variant PPA characterized by jargonaphasia and associated with superior temporal and parietal dysfunction.

Tipos de trastornos anómicos en las afasias / Types of anomic disorders in aphasia

Los trastornos anómicos están presentes en todos los síndromes afásicos, pero son muy heterogéneos ya que las causas que los producen son muy variadas al ser muchos los procesos cognitivos que intervienen en la producción oral. En este estudio se analizó una muestra de 28 pacientes afásicos pertenecientes a diferentes síndromes (afasias de Broca, de Wernicke, etc.), pero todos con trastornos anómicos. El objetivo era comprobar las variedades de anomias existentes y si esas variedades están ligadas a los síndromes clásicos. A esos pacientes se les aplicaron ocho tareas léxico-semánticas, fundamentalmente de denominación de dibujos (objetos y acciones), semánticas (emparejamiento palabra-dibujo, asociación semántica, etc.) y fonológicas (repetición de palabras y pseudopalabras). Según los resultados en esas tareas se clasificó a los pacientes mediante análisis discriminante en varios grupos (anomia pura, semántica, fonológica y mixta) y se analizaron las principales disociaciones (recuerdo frente a reconocimiento, objetos frente a acciones, etc.) existentes entre ellos. También se hicieron correlaciones entre los resultados de las tareas para comprobar la capacidad de las pruebas de predecir los distintos tipos de anomias. Los resultados muestran la existencia de una gran variedad de trastornos anómicos, que además son independientes de los síndromes a los que pertenezcan los pacientes (AU)

Anomic disorders occur in all aphasic syndromes. Since many cognitive processes are involved in oral production, there are multiple causes of these disorders, which are consequently highly heterogeneous. This study analyzed a sample of 28 aphasic patients with distinct syndromes (Broca’s aphasia, Wernicke’s aphasia, etc.) but all with anomic disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the variety of anomias and their connection with classical syndromes. The patients performed eight lexical-semantic tasks, picture naming (objects and actions), semantic (word-picture matching, semantic association, etc.) and phonological tasks (words and pseudoword repetition). Based on the results on these tasks, the patients were classifi ed into several groups through a discriminant analysis (pure, semantic, phonological and mixed anomia) and the main dissociations between the groups were analyzed (recall vs. recognition, objects vs. actions, etc.). Correlations among the results of the tasks were analyzed to check the ability of the tasks to predict the different types of anomia. The results showed the existence of a wide variety of anomic disorders, which were independent of the type of syndrome found in each patient (AU)

Tipos de trastornos anómicos en las afasias / Types of anomic disorders in aphasia

Los trastornos anómicos están presentes en todos los síndromes afásicos, pero son muy heterogéneos ya que las causas que los producen son muy variadas al ser muchos los procesos cognitivos que intervienen en la producción oral. En este estudio se analizó una muestra de 28 pacientes afásicos pertenecientes a diferentes síndromes (afasias de Broca, de Wernicke, etc.), pero todos con trastornos anómicos. El objetivo era comprobar las variedades de anomias existentes y si esas variedades están ligadas a los síndromes clásicos. A esos pacientes se le aplicaron ocho tareas lexicosemánticas, fundamentalmente de denominación de dibujos (objetos y acciones), semánticas (emparejamiento palabra-dibujo, asociación semántica, etc.) y fonológicas (repetición de palabras y seudopalabras). En base a los resultados en esas tareas se clasificó a los pacientes mediante análisis discriminante en cuatro grupos (anomia pura, semántica, fonológica y mixta) y se analizaron las principales disociaciones (p. ej. denominación de objetos frente a denominación de acciones) existentes entre ellos. También se hicieron correlaciones entre los resultados de las tareas para comprobar la capacidad de las pruebas de predecir los distintos tipos de anomias. Los resultados muestran la existencia de una gran variedad de trastornos anómicos, que además son independientes de los síndromes a los que pertenezcan los pacientes (AU)

The anomic disorders are present in all the aphasic syndromes, but they are very heterogeneous because of their multiple causes, as there are many cognitive processes involved in the oral production. A sample of 28 aphasic patients belonging to different syndromes (Broca’s aphasia, Wernicke’s, etc.) but all with anomic disorders was analyzed in this study. The goal was to check the variety of anomias and their connection with the classical syndromes. Eight lexical-semantic tasks were applied to those patients, especially picture naming (objects and actions) and semantic (word-picture matching, semantic association, etc.) and phonological tasks (words and pseudowords repetition). On the basis of their results on those tasks the patients were classified in four groups through a discriminant analysis (pure, semantic, phonological and mixed anomia) and the main dissociations between the groups were analyzed (e.g, objects vs. actions naming). Other analysis were also carried out, specifically the correlations between the results in the tasks to check the capacity of the tasks to predict the different types of anomia. The results show the existence of a great variety of anomic disorders, which are besides independent of the syndromes to which the patients belong (AU)

Neologistic jargon aphasia and agraphia in primary progressive aphasia.

The terms 'jargon aphasia' and 'jargon agraphia' describe the production of incomprehensible language containing frequent phonological, semantic or neologistic errors in speech and writing, respectively. Here we describe two patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) who produced neologistic jargon either in speech or writing. We suggest that involvement of the posterior superior temporal-inferior parietal region may lead to a disconnection between stored lexical representations and language output pathways leading to aberrant activation of phonemes in neologistic jargon. Parietal lobe involvement is relatively unusual in PPA, perhaps accounting for the comparative rarity of jargon early in the course of these diseases.

Acquired stuttering in a patient with Wernicke's aphasia.

We report a patient with aphasia caused by cerebral infarction in the left temporal, parietal and occipital lobes that was complicated by acquired stuttering (AS), which is an unusual association. Our findings indicated that Wernicke's area might be involved in the development of AS.

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease presenting with nonconvulsive status epilepticus.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a rare prion disease characterized by a spongiform encephalopathy in humans. Although the characteristic triad of myoclonus, dementia, and periodic EEG activity is easy to recognize, unusual manifestations of the disease may be challenging and create a diagnostic dilemma. We report a case of CJD that occurred in a 26-year-old patient who presented with a receptive (Wernicke's) aphasia secondary to nonconvulsive status epilepticus.

A case of cortical deafness and anarthria.

Generally, cortical deafness is not complicated by anarthria and cortical anarthria does not affect auditory perception. We report a case of simultaneous progressive cortical deafness and anarthria. At the age of 70 years, the patient, a woman, noticed hearing problems when using the telephone, which worsened rapidly over the next 2 years. She was then referred to our hospital for further examinations of her hearing problems. Auditory tests revealed threshold elevation in the low and middle frequencies on pure-tone audiometry, a maximum speech discrimination of 25% and normal otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem, middle- and long-latency responses. An articulation test revealed abnormal pronunciation. Because of these problems only written and not verbal communication was possible; her ability to read and write was unimpaired. She showed no other neurological problems. Brain MRI demonstrated atrophic changes of the auditory cortex and Wernicke's language center and PET suggested low uptake of (18F) 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose around the Sylvian fissures in both hemispheres. Neurologically, the patient was suspected of having progressive aphasia or frontotemporal dementia. Her cortical deafness and anarthria are believed to be early signs of this entity.

Musical alexia for rhythm notation: a discrepancy between pitch and rhythm.

In the process of reading music, the reading of rhythm and pitch might be differentiated, although there is no evidence of this to date. There have been cases of disorders restricted to the reading of pitch, but none in which the disorder has been restricted to the reading of rhythm. We present a case of musical alexia and agraphia with Wernicke's aphasia. An in-depth assessment of the subject's musical reading ability showed that her musical alexia was restricted to unfamiliar melodies. When a melody was divided into rhythm elements and pitch elements, pitch reading was preserved, but rhythm reading was severely disturbed. This is the first case reported of a disorder restricted to rhythm reading, and suggests the independence of rhythm reading and pitch reading.

Vascular aphasias: main characteristics of patients hospitalized in acute stroke units.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Aphasia is frequent in stroke patients and is associated with poor prognosis. However, characteristics and determinants of vascular aphasias remain controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate aphasia characteristics at the acute stage in patients admitted to a stroke unit. METHODS: The study was performed in 308 patients consecutively assessed with a standardized aphasia battery. RESULTS: Aphasia was observed in 207 patients; global and nonclassified aphasias accounted for 50% of aphasic syndromes at the acute stage, whereas classic aphasias (Wernicke's, Broca's, transcortical, and subcortical aphasias) were less frequent. Age differed across aphasic syndromes in ischemic stroke patients only; patients with conduction aphasia were younger, and patients with subcortical aphasia were older. Sex did not significantly differ across aphasic syndromes. The presence of a previous stroke was more frequent in nonclassified aphasia. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows (1) that vascular aphasias are frequently severe or nonclassic at the acute stage, a finding explained in part by the presence of a previous stroke; (2) that the age effect is due mainly to its influence on infarct location; and (3) that the main determinant of aphasia characteristics is lesion location.

Transcortical sensory aphasia: revisited and revised.

Transcortical sensory aphasia (TSA) is characterized by impaired auditory comprehension with intact repetition and fluent speech. We induced TSA transiently by electrical interference during routine cortical function mapping in six adult seizure patients. For each patient, TSA was associated with multiple posterior cortical sites, including the posterior superior and middle temporal gyri, in classical Wernicke's area. A number of TSA sites were immediately adjacent to sites where Wernicke's aphasia was elicited in the same patients. Phonological decoding of speech sounds was assessed by auditory syllable discrimination and found to be intact at all sites where TSA was induced. At a subset of electrode sites where the pattern of language deficits otherwise resembled TSA, naming and word reading remained intact. Language lateralization testing by intracarotid amobarbital injection showed no evidence of independent right hemisphere language. These results suggest that TSA may result from a one-way disruption between left hemisphere phonology and lexical-semantic processing.

First-pass versus second-pass parsing processes in a Wernicke's and a Broca's aphasic: electrophysiological evidence for a double dissociation.

The present paper is a first attempt to integrate the classical brain lesion behavioral impairment approach of functional neuroanatomy and the electrophysiological brain mapping approach in the domain of syntactic processing. In a group of normal age-matched controls we identified three electrophysiological components previously observed in correlation with language comprehension processes: an early left anterior negativity normally seen in correlation with syntactic first-pass parsing processes (ELAN), a centroparietal negativity seen in correlation with processes of lexical-semantic integration (N400), and a late centroparietal positivity observed in correlation with secondary syntactic processes of reanalysis and repair (P600). The early left anterior negativity was absent in a patient with an extended lesion in the anterior part of the left hemisphere sparing the temporal lobe, although the late centroparietal positivity and the centroparietal N400 were present. In a patient with a left temporal-parietal lesion the early left anterior negativity was found to be present, whereas the N400 component was absent. These findings suggest that first-pass parsing and secondary processes are subserved by distinct brain systems.

[Crossed aphasia disclosed by central auditory disorder]. / Aphasie croisée révélée par un trouble central de l'audition.

A 80-year-old woman, right-handed, suddenly felt the impression to be deaf. Besides, she presented language disorders of aphasic type relating to a sensorial transcortical aphasia. The case meets the diagnostic criteria for crossed aphasia. The magnetic resonance imaging showed a right temporo-parietal infarct. There was no sensorial or peripheral auditive disorder and no auditory agnosia of non verbal modality. During the evolution, the aphasic symptoms diminished partially and the subjective auditory deficit of the left ear continued. The integrated auditory evaluation (neuroacoustic test, study of auditory gnosia, dichotic listening test, evoked cortical auditory potentials) allowed the evidence of the characteristic disturbances of a right hemianacousia: loss of left hear in dichotic audition, decrease of amplitude of evoked right cortical auditory potentials. In the light of theories concerning auditory integration, one can explain this evolution. The initial aphasic comprehension disturbance expresses the alteration of the linguistic treatment of auditory information of the dominant hemisphere, here the right hemisphere. Subsequently, the linguistic disturbance regresses largely, letting persist the change of general auditory treatment. The representation of this general auditory treatment is hemispheric bilateral, the only right hemispheric damage shall result in hemianacousia.

Recovery in deep dysphasia: evidence for a relation between auditory - verbal STM capacity and lexical errors in repetition.

This study investigates the changes in auditory-verbal short-term memory (AVSTM) and error patterns in repetition observed in a Wernicke's aphasic, NC, over a period of about 2 years following the onset of a left middle cerebral artery aneurysm. When first tested, NC demonstrated deep dysphasia, a disorder characterized by the production of semantic errors in repetition and a severe disability in repeating nonwords. At this stage, his AVSTM span, assessed in a pointing task, was less than one item. As NC recovered somewhat, his performance on AVSTM tasks improved (span increased to two items), and his pattern of error in word repetition changed (fewer semantic errors, more formal paraphasias and neologisms). Other features of his span performance after some recovery resembled patterns associated with STM-based repetition impairments (reduced recency effects and reduced word length effects). In a series of computer simulation and empirical studies, we show that NC's repetition performance can be accounted for by varying two parameters of an interactive activation model of repetition adapted from Dell and O'Seaghdha's (1991) model of production: decay rate and temporal interval. These results provide support for the view that AVSTM performance depends on storage capacities intrinsic to the language processing system. Such a model allows deep dysphasia and STM-based repetition disorders to be seen as quantitative variants of the same underlying disturbance.

Voice onset time production in French-speaking aphasics.

VOT productions were compared for 5 Broca's aphasics and 5 Wernicke's aphasics to those for a group of 5 normal subjects of similar age. Phonetic errors were produced by both types of aphasic patients, but not by normal controls. Although previous studies have found significantly more phonetic errors in VOT production for Broca's aphasics, this study did not. Both Broca aphasics and Wernicke aphasics had somewhat less overall average difference in VOT between voiced and voiceless consonant pairs than normal speakers. Standard deviations associated with the VOT productions were also greater for both aphasic groups than for normal subjects. The results of this study are considered in light of the previous literature.