Dysarthria associated with unilateral central nervous system lesions: A retrospective study

This retrospective study of 56 patients with dysarthria resulting from unilateral central nervous system lesions describes the salient characteristics of the dysarthria and oral mechanism impairments and other clinical neurologic findings and lesion loci that were associated with them. Results indicated that (1) the etiology of the dysarthria was stroke in almost all cases; (2) lesions were usually supratentorial and occurred in either hemisphere; (3) the majority of lesions were in the internal capsule, pericapsular, or subcortical regions; (4) the dysarthria persisted beyond the period of spontaneous recovery in some cases; (5) clinically apparent contralateral central face and tongue weakness was evident in a majority of cases; and (6) the most frequent and prominent deviant speech characteristics were articulatory, but phonatory and prosodic abnormalities were sometimes present. The possible influences of weakness, spasticity, and incoordination on the auditory perceptual features of unilateral upper motor neuron dysarthria are discussed.