[A case of acquired stuttering resulting from striatocapsular infarction]

Acquired stuttering resulting from a striatocapsular infarction is reported. A 54-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of acute onset of stuttering and right facial palsy. The patient spoke very slowly. Speech was characterized by repetitions and prolongations. We considered that there was no aphasia, because comprehensive faculty was normal and neither paraphasia nor word-finding difficulty was recognized. Brain CTs and MRI revealed a striatocapsular infarction extending from the putamen to the caudate nucleus in the left hemisphere. Previously, there were reports of stuttering derived from parkinsonism and lesions in the supplementary motor area and thalamus. Therefore, we proposed that the stuttering arose from a collapse of basal ganglia circuits that connect the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, including the extrapyramidal tract system.