REPETITION AND THE ARCUATE FASCICULUS

According to the traditional model of language organization, repetitio n deficits arise following damage to the arcuate fasciculus of the dom inant hemisphere (conduction aphasia). Conduction aphasia may result f rom lesions that spare the arcuate fasciculus. However, these patients have atypical language organization. We describe a man with normal la nguage architecture who underwent a resection of the anterior portion of his arcuate fasciculus and retained his ability to repeat words and sentences. We propose that the arcuate fasciculus is not necessary fo r speech repetition by the lexical route.