Perceptual and acoustic correlates of affective prosody repetition in transcortical aphasias

Perceptual judgements and acoustic analyses of affective prosody during sentence repetition were examined in four patients with transcortical aphasias and in two normal controls. Although all aphasic patients had a relative preservation of sentence repetition, perceptual ratings revealed that they repeated using correct affective intonation significantly less frequently than normal control subjects. Acoustic analysis revealed that patients with transcortical aphasias were unable to impart angry and happy intonation during repetition, producing flat intonation contours in most sentences. Restricted modulation of FO and flat declinations of repeated utterances were found in patients with transcortical aphasias caused by lesions within the left perisylvian language area as well as outside this area. These findings suggest that repetition of affective prosody in transcortical aphasias is usually disrupted regardless of the intrahemispheric location (perisylvian or extraperisylvian) of the lesion, and that an adequate repetition of affective prosody may require bilateral, simultaneous hemispheric processing.