Thalamic stuttering: a distinct clinical entity?

A 38-year-old right-handed male with no history of speech or language problems presented with neurogenic stuttering following an ischaemic lesion of the left thalamus. He stuttered severely in propositional speech (conversation, monologue, confrontation naming, and word retrieval) but only slightly in non-propositional speech (automatic speech, sound, word and sentence repetition, and reading aloud). It is suggested that thalamic stuttering may constitute a distinct clinical entity.