SUBCORTICAL APHASIA - THE CORE PROFILE OF CAPSULOSTRIATAL INFARCTION

There has been disagreement about the precise characteristics of ''sub cortical aphasia.'' We evaluated 14 patients with aphasia after subcor tical lesions and controlled for duration, general anatomic site of le sions (capsulostriatal only), and etiology. The clinical profiles of t he patients were quite similar, varying in severity in rough proportio n to lesion size and varying in quality in proportion to anterior para ventricular extent. Large lesions were associated with impaired ''exec utive'' and ''generative'' language functions. Similar aphasia profile s in patients with deep frontal and paraventricular white matter lesio ns suggest that damage to a frontal-caudate functional system underlie s a ''core'' aphasia profile in these patients.