In anarthria, there is a complete inability to carry out speech movements, making it the most severe form of dysarthria.
Clinical presentation
Patients with anarthria are unable to articulate speech. Patients with anarthria may have intact linguistic and cognitive abilities, and some are able to produce limited oral movements and undifferentiated vocalizations when they try to speak[^1].
Etiology
The associated lesion, such as a cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, or even a brain tumor, may be located in the region of the lateral motor cortex, the language-dominant hemisphere (cortical motor representation of the tongue, larynx, lips, etc.), the associated pathways, or in the brainstem in the area of the cranial nerve nuclei of the glossopharyngeal nerve, vagus nerve, and/or hypoglossal nerve.
Treatment
In patients with anarthria combined with spastic tetraparesis caused by a brainstem stroke, words and sentences were decoded directly from cortical activity using a brain-computer interface in initial studies[^2].