Frontal verbal amnesia. Phonological amnesia

Abstract

Although aphasic patients with frontal lobe damage may demonstrate impaired retention of verbal material, significant anterograde memory disturbances have not, to our knowledge, been reported with a minor Broca's aphasia. We describe a patient with minor Broca's aphasia who exhibited an unusual and profound anterograde memory disturbance, especially for phonologically specified stimuli. We suggest that this disturbance is attributable to an impairment in the volitional, controlled search of stored phonological information.