Abstract
We reported a patient who manifested optic anomia, tactile aphasia of the left hand, and gustatory (taste) aphasia after cerebral infarction of the left hemisphere. Naming of objects presented to the auditory modality was preserved. Performance in a semantic association test executed under the conditions of visual, tactile and gustatory modalities was preserved. MRI showed a high-intensity area in the callosal radiations running through the splenium of the corpus callosum. The other lesion involved the subcortical regions of the left frontal lobe. The mechanism of both optic anomia and tactile aphasia can be explained as a disconnection of their respective recognition systems from the speech system. We assumed that gustatory aphasia is also caused by disconnection of the taste recognition system (1. gustatory area of the operculum of the parietal lobe and upper border of the insula, 2. semantic memory system of the temporal lobe, and 3. their connecting pathways) from the speech system. Visual naming of objects included in two categories body parts and clothing was significantly better than that of the other eight categories (vegetables, fruits, vehicles, birds, animals, instruments, electrical appliances, flowers). The regions responsible for the naming of body parts seem to involve both the somatotopy (body image) region of the parietal lobe and the pathway from the somatotopy region to the speech system, both of which were preserved in our case.
