1986 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 129-136
Although dysarthria in cerebral lesions has been considered as a symptom of bilateral pathology, our clinical experience suggests that it may also result from unilateral lesions.
Speech characteristics of dysarthric patients with unilateral cerebral lesions were studied using a specially designed dysarthria rating scale based on auditory impressions. The subjects were 26 dysarthric patients with unilateral cerebral lesions confirmed by CT scan. 13 normal subjects served as controls. Two-minutes-long speech samples were compiled for each subject and rated by five experienced judges.
The results were as follows:
1) The dysarthric subjects showed deficient scores on several items on the rating scale while none of the normal controls showed deficient scores.
2) Although the speech characteristics of the dysarthric subjects in the present study were similar to that of the pseudobulbar palsy patients, the present subjects were less impaired in terms of severity as compared to the pseudobulbar palsy patients.
3) Subjects with left hemisphere lesions generally exhibited severer impairment than the subjects with right hemisphere lesions.
4) The severity of dysarthria was not clearly related to the size of cerebral lesions as obtained by CT scan.
5) Although the results of the present study suggest the possibility of unilateral lesion induced dysarthria, the findings should be considered within the limits of the diagnostic precision of CT scan studies.
