A case study of reproduction conduction aphasia I: Word production

Abstract

We present data regarding word production and short-term auditory verbal memory in a patient, RL, who falls into the class of “reproduction conduction aphasia”. RL shows similar disturbances of single word production in naming, repetition, and reading aloud. He shows qualitatively similar and quantitatively worse performance in repetition of nonwords. His STM is good on tasks (pointing and recognition) which do not require verbal output. We conclude that his disturbance lies at a stage of word production, rather than in the process of perception or in the transfer of perceived representations to motor planning processes. We discuss existing models of the deficit in conduction aphasia and models of word recognition and production in the light of RL's performance, and we argue that none can account for the pattern of his results. We suggest that a model which incorporates two stages of phonological representations, in accordance with contemporary linguistic theory, is supported by the pattern of RL's performances.