ABSTRACT
Aphasia classically has been described as an acquired impairment of language behavior subsequent to cortical brain injury to the dominant hemisphere. Traditionally, lesions in the internal capsule have been described as resulting in pure motor deficits, which may be accompanied by dysarthria without aphasia. Only recently has the literature suggested that lesions in the putamen and internal capsule may result in aphasia. We describe three clinical cases in which aphasia resulted from left subcortical lesions. The lesions were demonstrated using computed tomographic (CT) scan; language deficits were measured objectively using the Porch Index of Communicative Ability (PICA). Two of the three patients experienced excellent recovery of language skills, suggesting that subcortical lesions may have a more favorable prognosis in recovery from aphasia than do cortical lesions. The encouraging recovery may be related to fiber pathway disruption rather than cortical destruction.
