Prearticulatory and postarticulatory self-monitoring in Broca's aphasia

The present study examined to what extent patients with Broca's aphasia and healthy controls rely upon prearticulatory and postarticulatory monitoring processes for detecting and repairing errors in speech production. Monitoring skills were investigated in a speaking situation with normal auditory feedback, a speaking situation with white noise, and a situation in which errors had to be detected in other-produced speech. The results demonstrated that the Broca's aphasics repaired a lower percentage of errors than the controls in the situation with normal auditory feedback, whereas their performance in the noise-masked condition was comparable. In contrast to the controls, the aphasics did not suffer from the presence of white noise. In addition, the proportion of covert repairs was higher for the Broca's aphasics than for the healthy controls. These findings indicate that Broca's aphasics concentrate primarily on prearticulatory monitoring. Possible explanations for this strong reliance on prearticulatory monitoring processes are discussed.