[Case Report: Broca's Aphasia in a Left-Handed Patient with a Right Brain Infarction and Early Stage Aphonia]

Brain Nerve. 2022 Apr;74(4):393-399. doi: 10.11477/mf.1416202050.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

We report a case of Broca's aphasia in a left-handed patient with a right brain infarction. The patient's speech is consistent with a particular type of aphemia, that is, without vocalization except for a few phonemes or words. The patient presented with aphonia in an early stage. The lack of speech could be due to the impairment of the phonological-speech process or speech initialization. This type of aphemia has been reported to involve the right inferior precentral gyrus or right middle and inferior frontal gyri. Our patient had both lesions. The symptom and the lesion of this type of aphemia could differ from those of another type of aphemia corresponding to apraxia of speech, and the speech of Broca's aphasia could have multiple mechanisms. Our case shows Alexander's anomalous type with atypical lateralization and distribution of the lesion. Verbal intrahemispheric dissociation apraxia was suspected in our patient. The coexistence of aphasia, anosodiaphoria of hemiplegia is a dual symptom in which bilateral hemispheric functions exist in a unilateral hemisphere. (Received 1 December, 2021; Accepted 1 February, 2022; Published 1 April, 2022).

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Aphasia, Broca / etiology
  • Aphasia, Broca / pathology
  • Aphonia*
  • Apraxias* / etiology
  • Brain Infarction
  • Humans
  • Speech