Improvement in picture naming in a patient with acquired childhood aphasia manifesting neologisms and paraphasia

Abstract

We investigated changes in the error patterns of picture naming in a girl with acquired childhood aphasia (ACA) who manifested neologisms and paraphasia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a lesion in the left posterior hemisphere resulting from cerebrovascular disease. In the naming task of both the standard language test of aphasia (SLTA) and Suzuki picture cards, the ratios of neologisms and paraphasia decreased during the chronic stage of ACA. These results suggest that semantic information processing and retrieval of word sounds improved in this patient. Reports on neologisms and paraphasia in ACA are rare. It had been assumed that neologisms are observed only during the acute stage, and this characteristic of neologisms seemed to be associated with head injuries. However, in our case the aphasia was caused by cerebrovascular disease, and neologisms were observed even one year after onset. These findings suggest that in ACA as well as in adult aphasia, neologisms are observed in patients with cerebrovascular disease and reven during the chronic stage. In our ACA patient, who speaks fluently, the lesion was localized in the posterior of the left hemisphere. Therefore, it seems that the correlation between the location of the lesion and speech fluency in adult aphasia is applicable even in ACA.