Chronic Apraxia of Speech and Broca’s Area

Apraxia of speech (AOS) is an impairment of motor planning and programming of speech articulation and is often considered an important stroke syndrome, localizable to Broca's area. However, an influential study raised doubts on this localization and reported that AOS is attributable to lesions of the anterior insula, based on an association between chronic AOS and anterior insula lesions. We hypothesized that chronic AOS is associated with large lesions (which include the insula) or lesions to Broca's area. Method- We tested 34 participants with chronic left supratentorial stroke on an AOS battery and obtained concurrent magnetic resonance imaging. We evaluated associations between AOS and locations and volume of infarct.