Articulatory loop in ataxic dysarthria

The aim of the present paper was to investigate articulatory loop in patients with pure motor speech disturbances. A homogeneous group of 18 patients affected by ataxic dysarthria and without neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence of cortical damage was selected. The study comprised four experiments which assessed: (i) immediate and delayed recall of word sequences with and without articulatory suppression; (ii) phonological similarity and word length effects on immediate recall; (iii) articulation rate; and (iv) verbal and spatial span. In agreement with previous studies on patients affected by different types of dysarthria, articulatory loop was found functional. However, patients had a slower articulation rate, and it was argued that this finding can represent a "capacity limitation" of articulatory rehearsal, contributing to the patients' slight verbal short-term memory defect.