Aphemia after infarction of the left precentral gyrus and premotor area.

The term “aphemia” is now used to describe a motor disorder that affects speech production but leaves the comprehension of spoken and written language intact. Aphemia is a specific form of mutism. Aphemia was formerly referred to as phonetic disintegration, pure anarthria, apraxic dysarthria, cortical dysarthria, verbal apraxia, subcortical motor aphasia, pure motor aphasia, small or mini Broca’s aphasia, pure word mutism and kinetic speech production disorder, reflecting the differing views on the nature of the underlying disorder (e.g., aphasia, dysarthria, apraxia). This condition may lie between pure speech disorders (i.e., dysarthrias) and language disorders (i.e., aphasias) and it usually reflects damage in the left frontal operculum1. Aphemia may emerge during recovery from more extensive deficits. Occasional cases of progressive aphemia resulting from selective left temporal lobe degeneration have been reported2. In addition, cases of epileptic aphemia have been described3.