[Conduction aphasia. Neuropsychologic study of a patient]

We report a patient with clinical features consistent with conduction aphasia. The patient had dilated cardiomyopathy, and as a complication, had cerebral infarction one year before neuropsychiatric evaluation. His language was fluid, paraphasic, with a "phonetic approximation behavior" in an attempt to pronounce the adequate word. Comprenssion was normal and repetition difficult, with numerous paraphasias. Number repetition was particularly affected. Reading and writing had the same features as spontaneous language. In association with the language disorder, he had "aphasic" acalculia, but other signs of left parietal involvement were absent. Magnetic resonance images showed a low parietal small chronic ischemic area, which also involved the left infrasilvian region, both in the cortex and in the white matter, presumably in the arcuate bundle. The differential diagnostic difficulties of this condition are discussed from a behavioral standpoint.