Summary
Twelve patients with cerebellar infarction, 8 in the region supplied by the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) and 4 in the territory of the superior cerebellar artery, underwent formal perceptual examination for speech deficits. With respect to topography the results firstly underline the significance of the paravermal region of the superior cerebellar portion for speech functions. In all patients with dysarthric impairment the lesion extended to this area, whereas patients with PICA infarction sparing the superior portion of the cerebellum showed no speech deficits. Secondly the findings do not corroborate the notion of an exclusively left-sided cerebellar speech motor control, since 3 of the 4 dysarthric subjects had unilateral right-sided ischaemia. This study thirdly demonstrates that lesions of the cerebellar cortex without involvement of the dentate nucleus can cause dysarthric impairment. Phonetic analysis revealed irregularly distributed articulatory deficits and slowed speech tempo as the most common dysarthric features.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amarenco P (1986) Les infarctus cérébelleux. Etude anatomoclinique de 64 cas et révue de la littérature. Dissertation, Université de Paris Nord, Faculté de Médécine de Bobigny
Amarenco P, Hauw JJ (1990) Cerebellar infarction in the territory of the anterior and inferior cerebellar artery. A clinicopathological study of 20 cases. Brain 113:139–155
Amarenco P, Hauw JJ, Hénin D, Duyckaerts C, Roullet E, Laplane D, Gautier JC, Lhermitte F, Buge A, Castaigne P (1989) Les infarctus du territoire de l'artère cérébelleuse postéro-inférieure. Etude clinico-pathologique de 28 cas. Rev Neurol (Paris) 145:277–286
Amarenco P, Roullet E, Hommel M, Chaine P, Marteau R (1990) Infarction in the territory of the medial branch of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 53:731–735
Aronson AE (1990) Clinical voice disorders. An interdisciplinary approach, 3rd edn. Thieme, New York
Brown JR, Darley FL, Aronson AE (1970) Ataxic dysarthria. Int J Neurol 7:302–318
Chan-Palay V (1977) Cerebellar dentate nucleus. Organization, cytology and transmitters. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Darley FL, Aronson AE, Brown JR (1975) Motor speech disorders. Saunders, Philadelphia
Gilman S, Kluin K (1985) Perceptual analysis of speech disorders in Friedreich disease and olivopontocerebellar atrophy. In: Bloedel JR, Dichgans J, Precht W (eds) Cerebellar functions. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 148–163
Hirose H, Kiritani S, Sawashima M (1982) Velocity of articulatory movements in normal and dysarthric subjects. Folia Phoniatr (Basel) 34:210–215
Kent RD, Netsell R (1975) A case study of an ataxic dysarthric. Cineradiographic and spectrographic observations. J Speech Hear Dis 40:115–134
Kent RD, Netsell R, Abbs JH (1979) Acoustic characteristics of dysarthria associated with cerebellar disease. J Speech Hear Res 22:627–648
Kirzinger A (1985) Cerebellar lesion effects on vocalization of the squirrel monkey. Behav Brain Res 16:177–181
Kluin KJ, Gilman S, Markel DS, Koeppe RA, Rosenthal G, Junck L (1988) Speech disorders in olivopontocerebellar atrophy correlate with positron emission tomography findings. Ann Neurol 23:547–554
Larson CR, Sutton D, Lindeman RC (1978) Cerebellar regulation of phonation in Rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). Exp Brain Res 33:1–8
Lechtenberg R, Gilman S (1978) Speech disorders in cerebellar disease. Ann Neurol 3:285–290
Ziegler W, Hartmann E, Hoole P, Cramon D von (1990) Entwicklung von diagnostischen Standards und von Therapieleitlinien für zentrale Stimm- und Sprechstörungen (Dysarthrophonien). Forschungsgberichte der Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung mbH, München
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ackermann, H., Vogel, M., Petersen, D. et al. Speech deficits in ischaemic cerebellar lesions. J Neurol 239, 223–227 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00839144
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00839144