Supplementary motor area aphasia: a case report

A 72-year-old right-handed woman developed aphasia after a left supplementa ry motor area (SMA) infarct. She had a right hemiparesis, more paretic on t he leg, a tendency to look to her left, and loss of spontaneity. Neuropsych ological deficits were mainly in the initiation of language production. She did not speak spontaneously, but responded and articulated well to questio ns. She named objects correctly when presented, and could repeat words, phr ases, and sentences well. She had a difficulty in reading aloud, writing sp ontaneously and writing to dictation, but preserved the ability to copy wri tten material. This is another rare case of SMA aphasia. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.