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Chapter One
Subcortical involvement in speech
and language: an introduction
and historical perspective
Introduction
Recent advances in our understanding of the connectivity of subcortical structures
such as the basal ganglia and cerebellum with the cerebral cortex, combined with the
development and introduction of advanced neuroimaging techniques, has, over the
past two decades, forced a re-think of our concepts of the contribution of subcortical
structures to speech and language function. In particular, there has been a growing
realization that subcortical structures such as the thalamus, caudate nucleus, globus
pallidus, subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra and cerebellum, among others, not
only contribute to the regulation and coordination of the motor aspects of speech
production but also are important components of the neural circuits that regulate
cognitive and linguistic function. Consequently, there is now much greater acceptance
that subcortical structures participate in the regulation of language to a greater extent
than proposed by various localizationist models of language f ... read full excerpt from Speech and Language Disorders Associated with Subcortical Pathology ebook
