[Mutism and aphasia--a review of the literature]

Mutism in the sense of a complete inability to produce oral language is a rare symptom in aphasic disorders and most often occurs as a transient initial sign. Among the pathomechanisms causing muteness in aphasia, disturbances of speech initiation and of limbic aspects of speech production on the one hand and speech motor programming impairments on the other are considered. This article reviews clinical reports of extremely reduced speech or complete muteness in the context of aphasia, discussing the observed symptom patterns as well as their neuroanatomic correlates and aspects of their recovery.