Relationship between language characteristics of subcortical aphasia and the lesion sites / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM: To study the language characteristics and origins of subcortical aphasia. METHODS: One hundred and five patients with unilateral subcortical lesions were confirmed by CT scans. Aphasia examinations, brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM) and CT image standardization were performed at the end of two weeks, one month and two months after onset. RESULTS: Most aphasia patients had lesions in the lateral, front and upper part of basal ganglion. BEAM is largely abnormal in the aphasia patients of lateral type and thalamic aphasia who had serious auditory comprehension disturbance. Prominent dysarthria and dysprosody occurred in aphasia patients with lesions in caudate nucleus. CONCLUSION: Subcortical aphasia has its language characteristics. It is mostly due to the damage of language related zone of hemisphere caused directly or indirectly by subcortical lesions. Thalamus serves as a subcortical center in controlling language and its disturbance causes aphasia in some patients.