Palilalia due to steroid-responsive encephalopathy

Abstract

alilalia was first described by Souques in 1908 as the repetition of syllables, words, phrases, or sentences of one's own speech. 1,2 It is distinctive from disarticulation, reiterative aphasia, and echolalia. Critchley 1 observed that the speech tends to be uttered more and more quickly and with less distinctness, so that the latter parts may be almost inaudible-the diminuendo effect. His patients were fully aware of their palilalia, but unable to control it. 1 Critchley 1 believed palilalia was due to a disorder in the motor mechanism of speaking rather than the creation of thoughts and words themselves. Benke and Butterworth 3 expanded on the idea of palilalia as a disorder of motor speech and suggested that, further, it could stem from a defect in a central prearticulatory generator area, or the control module of the articulator or motor speech that provides feedback to terminate the loop. In 1924, Sterling further divided palilalia into 2 distinct types. Type A was palilalia spasmodic or heterophonic, a "compulsive reiteration of utterance with increasing rapidity and decreasing volume," similar to previously described cases. He added a new type B: atonic or homophonic palilalia, a "reiteration of utterances at a constant rate alternating with periods of silence." 4,5 We present a case of palilalia caused by a steroid-responsive encephalopathy that does not squarely fall into the previously defined categories.

The spectrum of involuntary vocalizations in humans: A video atlas

“…34,60,62,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85] A family with extensive intracerebral calcification was reported to present palilalia, 86 and indeed patients with Fahr syndrome, an etiologically heterogeneous disorder, 87 will often present this clinical sign. Further, palilalia was reported as ictal, 88 autoimmune, 89 and drug-induced phenomenon (eg, with clozapine 90 or cefepime 91 ).…”

Case report: Gait-induced palilalia in a patient with hemiplegia due to cerebral infarction

“…Palilalia is a type of reiterative speech characterized by the involuntary repetition of syllables, words, phrases, or sentences ( Critchley, 1927 ). This phenomenon has been observed in patients with various neurological disorders ( Stracciari et al, 1993 ; Benke and Butterworth, 2001 ; Landi et al, 2012 ; Patira et al, 2017 ). Here, we report the extremely rare case of a patient with hemiplegia due to cerebral infarction who experienced palilalia during walking.…”

“…Palilalia, as a compulsive repetition of words, phrases, or syllables, has been described in several neurological disorders, including cerebrovascular ( Benke and Butterworth, 2001 ) and degenerative diseases ( Stracciari et al, 1993 ), encephalitis ( Patira et al, 2017 ), and epilepsy ( Landi et al, 2012 ). Palilalia has been observed in spontaneous speech ( Gorno et al, 1997 ; Patira et al, 2017 ), in response to a question ( Dierckx et al, 1991 ; Ueki et al, 2000 ), and in both contexts ( Critchley, 1927 ; Van Borsel et al, 2007 ). Palilalia, in the present case, was characterized by being induced by limb movements.…”