Broca's area aphasias: aphasia after lesions including the frontal operculum.

Abstract

We report 9 cases of aphasia following lesions in the region of the left frontal operculum. It is not possible to capture their variety of clinical manifestations with the simple labels of "Broca's area aphasia." or "Broca's area aphasia." Analysis of the breakdown of various components of speech and language in these cases suggests that the operculum, lower motor cortex, and subjacent subcortical and periventricular white matter contain critical parts of different language systems. These systems can be independently impaired. There are several common language syndromes that follow damage that includes the left frontal operculum. These syndromes reflect the effects of the direction and extent of the lesion in the various language systems.