Startseite Right thalamic lacunar infarction presenting with anomic aphasia
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Right thalamic lacunar infarction presenting with anomic aphasia

  • Naveed Natanzi EMAIL logo , Sogol Ashourpour , Pedram Goel und Patricia W. Nance
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 19. Juli 2014

Abstract

We present two cases of thalamic infarction presentation with aphasia, which has rarely been documented in the literature. Of interest, the second case presented with a lesion in the non-dominant thalamus, which made the finding of speech impairment exceedingly rare. Anomic aphasia has been associated with lesions to the basal temporal lobe, anterior inferior temporal lobe, temporo-parieto-occipital junction and the inferior parietal lobe, but rarely in association with the thalamus. Thalamic strokes most often present with motor, sensory, and cognitive deficits; few reports in the medical literature associate aphasia with a thalamic infarction. Possible explanations include crossed aphasia, diaschisis, the hypometabolic theory, and the thalamus as a secondary language center. Our findings may hint to a relationship among language, higher cognitive function, subcortical structures, and interhemispheric connections that are yet to be understood completely. We postulate that an increasingly important role of subcortical neuronal structures in cognitive functions will be recognized as diagnostic imaging technology improves over time.


Corresponding author: Naveed Natanzi, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of California, Irvine 969 Hilgard Ave, Suite 709, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA, Phone: +818 605-9333, E-mail:

Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ conflict of interest disclosure: The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Research funding: None declared.

Employment or leadership: None declared.

Honorarium: None declared.

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Received: 2014-5-2
Accepted: 2014-6-2
Published Online: 2014-7-19
Published in Print: 2015-5-1

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