Victor W. Henderson

Profound mixed transcortical aphasia: implications for language representation within the brain.

Henderson VW, Bull Clin Neurosci. 1989: 54 158-162

A 59-year-old woman suffered severe symptoms of mixed transcortical (isolation) aphasia following cardiac arrest. Spontaneous speech was entirely absent and auditory comprehension was markedly impaired. In striking contrast, oral repetition, serial speech, and echolalic responses were easily elicited. Findings in profound mixed transcortical aphasia imply that phonological and syntactic processing can occur in isolated perisylvian regions of the left cerebral hemisphere but that lexical semantic processing must include input from non-language association areas beyond this central language core.