Perseveration in aphasic patients in terms of neurolinguistics

Neurolinguistics, which researches the relationship between language and brain, also deals with language disorders. One of these language disorders is aphasia that results from a damage in the left hemisphere of the brain. One of the language problems caused by aphasia is perseveration and it is defined as the inconvenient and involuntary repetition of a previous or particular response instead of the new, expected response.The aim of this study is to find out the relationship between perseveration and aphasia types, the importance length of time after aphasia, to determine the rate of perseveration in naming and repetition functions, and identify the most common type of perseveration in aphasia. 10 fluent and 16 non-fluent patients diagnosed with aphasia in Dokuz Eylül and Ege Universities, consist of the database of this study. The patients were first tested by Ege Aphasia Test for a general language evaluation and then a Naming-Repetition Scale was prepared to determine perseverations in the patient?s speech. The results were analysed and evaluated statistically. It was found that aphasia types and the length of time after aphasia had no effect on perseveration. Comparing the naming and repetition activities, it was seen that more perseveration was done in naming activities and determined that the most common type in aphasic patients was recurrent perseveration. There isn?t an extensive research about perseveration in Turkey so far. Therefore the results of this study can make contribution to neurolinguistics, research on aphasia and the therapy of it.Key Words: Aphasia, perseveration, neurolinguistics