Abstract
Three cases of an aphasic syndrome presenting prominent monemic paraphasia (paraphasie monémique ; Lecours) were reported. All cases developed fluent aphasia after left putaminal hemorrhage. Language features were summarized as follows; spontaneous speech was fluent with irrelevant paraphasia. A Large amount of monemic paraphasia was observed on naming tasks, and naming was not facilitated by phonemic cueing. Comprehension and repetition were fairly good.
The cases presenting monemic paraphasia which has been reported until now were accompanied by confusion, denial of illness, or mood changes and the responsible lesions were not specified in most cases.
In our cases, such symptoms above mentioned were not observed. It was suggested that the subcortical damages involving basal ganglia and/or thalamus, with cortical region being left intact, played an important role in the pathogenesis of monemic paraphasia.
