This study investigated the effects of bi-mora frequency and lexicality frequency on phonemic paraphasia. Bi-mora refers to frequency of joined mora in a given language. An aphasic patient who showed prominent phonemic paraphasia was asked to repeat real words and non-words in which bi-mora frequency was controlled. The results revealed that phonemic paraphasia occurred more frequently for non-words than for real words ; also, there was a tendency toward increased paraphasia for both real words and non-words having low bi-mora frequency. Word frequency did not have significant effect on the paraphasia. However, these results suggest that lexicality and the frequency of a mora sequence are important factors affecting the production of phonemic paraphasia in the patient.
   In general, high bi-mora frequency yields familiarity of sound planning. Phonemic paraphasia is thought to have decreased for real words and non-words with high bi-mora frequency because of familiarity of sound planning, and decreased for real words with high bi-mora frequency because of familiarity of sound planning and semantic cues. In this patient the effect of familiarity seems to be the more significant factor for reducing paraphasia.

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   We exercised group therapy to six chronic aphasic patients for the purpose of improving their psychosocial aspects.
   The therapy had the following distinctive features : (1) ascertainment of psychosocial problems based on our original Psychosocial Assessment Form ; (2) selection of activities which produce good psychosocial effects, such as enjoyment of activities, self-expression, self-revelation, understanding of one's own difficulties, role engaging, and positive participation ; (3) guarantee by the therapist that the therapy environment is heedful of language difficulties, acceptive and sympathetic, and interchanging, communicational, and social.
   Results were as follows : All six aphasics showed improvement according to our Psychosocial Assessment ; There was no direct correlation between our Assessment and the Overall Assessment of SLTA.
   This study suggests the following. Behavior observation based on our Assessment Form is useful for proper support and well-timed intervention. The effective program for each individual varies according to his/her psychosocial problems. Two stages are involved in the process of improving aphasics' problems. The first stage consists of stable group participation and the achievement of communication. The second stage entails psychosocial re-integration through experience.
   Aphasics have difficulty in psychosocial re-integration through language. However, psychosocial activities or experiences based on achievement of communication and group dynamics are very effective in promoting self-reconstruction.

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   We report on a patient with anarthria following an ischemic stroke of the left central gyrus and adjacent subcortical area, who continuously exhibited selective impairment in articulation of the two vowels /i/and/e/.
   The patient was a 72-year-old right-handed male with a history of myocardial infarction who suddenly developed mutism and right hemiparesis. MRI showed an infarction in the left pre- and post-central gyrus, extending to the adjacent subcortical area, and other small old infarctions in the bilateral subcortical areas. The lowest part of the left precentral cortex was intact. During the acute phase of illness, the patient was mute but could fully communicate by means of writing and gestures. He exhibited a buccofacial apraxia and minor agramatism in writing. Over the next few months, despite complete articulations of the other three vowels and all consonants except /j/, the patient selectively and persistently showed impairment in articulations of the two vowels /i/and/e/. In emotional situations, the patient could often produce the two vowels.
  We speculate that a combination of anarthria and dysarthria, the former characterized by inconsistent dysarticulation and the latter by consistent dysarticulation, constitutes a possible mechanism for producing a unique linguistic impairment of this kind in this patient. We also discuss possible an involvement of “anterior opercular syndrome” characterized by automatico-voluntary dissociation of the lower cranial nerve functions.

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   A case of severe aphasia exhibiting both recurring utterances and echolalia is reported. The patient produced stereotypic speech consisting of the word “nakanaka,” with variations including the addition of several suffixes (e. g. “nakanaka-bui” ) or agglutinating particles (e. g. “nakanaka-damon-ne” ). The authors regarded this speech behavior as recurring utterances in the fluctuating stage (Alajouanine 1956) and semistereotypic speech (Hadano, et al 1997). In addition to recurring utterances, the patient frequently produced mitigated and complete echolalias in conversation. The coexistence of recurring utterances and echolalias in a patient with aphasia may be very rare, because the authors could find only one case report, which Stengel (1947) described in general terms. Traditional symptomatologies of aphasia, for example the classical theory (Geschwind 1965) based on Wernicke (1874) -Lichtheim (1885) 's model, cannot explain the coexistence of recurring utterances and echolalia. Recurring utterances are always observed in total or global aphasias, while, echolalia is a representative symptom of transcortical aphasias. Here, we discuss various problems of automatic speech observed in aphasic speech disturbances.

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   The purpose of this study was to consider the mechanism of perseveration errors. In this study, we analyzed the perseveration errors of eight aphasic patients. The errors occurred as responses to a picture naming task.
   The authors classified the perseveration errors into immediate or delayed types according to the duration between the first and second appearances of the item, and analyzed any semantic and phonemic similarities between the perseveration errors and the target words. The results, suggested that the incidence of similarity with the delayed type in semantically or phonemically similar words is higher than that of the immediate type.
   The incidence of perseveration was influenced by both semantic and phonemic similarities. Selection disorders in semantic and phonological processing are thought to play a role in the appearance of delayed type perseveration. Therefore, not only transfer disorder but also selection disorder may relate to the mechanism of perseveration errors.

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   The ecological validity of the Standard Language Test of Aphasia (SLTA) was examined by developing a questionnaire about the everyday language ability of aphasic patients. The questionnaire consisted of three items concerning receptive ability and three items about expressive ability. Language performances of 22 aphasics were assessed by both SLTA and the questionnaire, posed to hospital staff who have frequent conversations with the subjects. In order to gain reliable data, three staff members were asked to rate each subject, and their mean score was calculated.
   Global rating scores for the SLTA showed strong correlations with both the receptive (r= 0.86) and expressive scores (r= 0.67) on the questionnaire. These results seem to support the SLTA's ecological validity. However, upon looking at the relationships between scores of 25 items on the SLTA and the questionnaire, complex relationships are revealed. Receptive scores on the questionnaire have strong correlations not only with items of oral comprehension but also with items of oral expression, reading comprehension and writing on the SLTA. Items having strong correlations with expressive scores on the questionnaire were mostly involved with modality of oral expression in the SLTA. These results indicate that some items of oral expression in the SLTA have exclusive relationships to some extent with expressive scores on the questionnaire, but items of oral comprehension in the SLTA do not exhibit such exclusive relationships.
   These results were discussed in terms of the SLTA's ecological validity in clinical use. While the SLTA appears to predict everyday language ability of aphasics in a global context, its predictive validity of performance in terms of language modality is limited especially with respect to receptive ability.

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