Subcortical lesions and aphasia

Recent evidence suggests that subcortical lesions can give rise to aphasic symptoms. Two subcortical structures thought to participate in the pathogenesis of aphasia are the basal ganglia and the thalamus. This paper reports on 3 patients with lesions of the thalamus and 10 patients with lesions of the basal ganglia, most of whom had persistent aphasias. The role of subcortical structures in aphasia and the importance of subcortical structures in neural models of language are discussed.