Pathological switching between languages after frontal lesions in a bilingual patient
Abstract
Cerebral lesions may alter the capability of bilingual subjects
to separate their languages and use each language in appropriate contexts. Patients who show pathological mixing intermingle different languages within a single utterance. By contrast, patients affected by
pathological switching alternate their languages across different utterances (a self contained segment of speech that stands on its own
and conveys its own independent meaning). Cases of pathological mixing
have been reported after lesions to the left temporoparietal lobe. By
contrast, information on the neural loci involved in pathological
switching is scarce. In this paper a description is given for the first
time of a patient with a lesion to the left anterior cingulate and to
the frontal lobe—also marginally involving the right anterior
cingulate area—who presented with pathological switching between
languages in the absence of any other linguistic impairment. Thus,
unlike pathological mixing that typically occurs in bilingual aphasia,
pathological switching may be independent of language mechanisms.


