Neurolinguistic Analysis of a Case of Crossed Apraxia of Speech in Arabic

Apraxia of speech (AOS) was studied in various occidental languages. However, no cases have been described in Arabic. In the current study, we present OJ who suffered from crossed apraxia of speech following right hemisphere damage. To our knowledge, until now there are merely three cases of crossed apraxia of speech (CAOS) that have been described in the literature. Therefore, our study will clarify the neurolinguistic symptoms that characterize CAOS and explore the phonetic encoding process. OJ 55-year old right-handed man with a right ischemic infarct on brain MRI. He was diagnosed as having a pure, severe CAOS with no aphasic impairment. He presented the classic triad of apraxia of speech: segmental distorsions, temporal variability errors and finally Suprasegmental distorsion which occurred inconsistently. The neurolinguistic pattern as shown in our patient errors resulted in a loss of phonetic encoding of both words and phrases. Therefore, our patient had (a) a quasi-preserved ability of phonological form of words that he intended to produce them, and (b) in the absence of paresis, ataxia, akinesia, or other problem related to motor control that would prevent the accurate execution of speech articulation.