A role for the cerebellum in motor speech planning: Evidence from foreign accent syndrome

A 3 year follow-up study was performed in a patient with foreign accent syndrome (FAS) as the sole cognitive manifestation of a left fronto-parietal stroke. The hypothesis of involvement of the right cerebellum in this motor speech planning disorder was investigated by means of functional neuroimaging (SPECT) and neurobehavioral assessments. Based on the close parallelism between the evolution of FAS symptoms and the perfusional changes in the right cerebellum, it is argued that FAS may result from a disruption of a close functional interplay between the supra- and infratentorial speech centers involved in motor speech planning.