Letter by Terao et al Regarding Article, 'Damage to the Left Precentral Gyrus Is Associated With Apraxia of Speech in Acute Stroke'

We read with great interest the article by Itabashi et al1 recently published in Stroke . Using voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping analysis on magnetic resonance imagings of a large number of patients, the authors clearly demonstrated that a restricted area in the left motor cortex is associated with the presentation of apraxia of speech, notably even with that without aphasia. We have previously reported that lesions in almost the same region in the left motor cortex can cause aphemia, but without overt signs of aphasia, suggesting this motor region to be essential for speech articulation.2 Some authors associated the same region with the foreign accent syndrome. Together, it is plausible that this motor area plays an important role in motor speech production.1 Located …