On the neurological status of speech automatisms and its significance for neurolinguistic models

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Abstract
Forty-five aphasic patients, who had suffered a left middle cerebral infarction involving more than 2% of forebrain volume at least 4 months previously, were investigated for the presence of speech automatisms and their accompanying neurological and neuropsychological symptoms. Fourteen patients were found to produce automatisms. The presence of this symptom was correlated, although not closely, with degree of bucco–facial apraxia, but not significantly with lesion size. The correlation with Token Test scores was insignificant when the effects of ideomotor apraxia had been partialized. We interpret our observations on the basis of a theory that speech automatisms are a symptom of primary or secondary severe dysfunction in the periphery of the language production apparatus in the vicinity of processes of speech motor planning and execution.