Theoretical article The effects of initiation, termination and inhibition impairments on speech rate in a case of progressive nonfluent aphasia with progressive apraxia of speech with frontotemporal degeneration Chris Code a, * , Martin Ball b , Jeremy Tree c , Karen Dawe d a Psychology, CLES, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QG, UK b University of Lousiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA c University of Swansea, Swansea, UK d University of Bristol, Bristol, UK article info Article history: Received 3 March 2013 Received in revised form 15 April 2013 Accepted 29 April 2013 Keywords: Progressive apraxia of speech Speech initiation Disinhibition Speech termination Progressive nonfluent aphasia Frontotemporal degeneration abstract Recent research into nonfluent forms of primary progressive aphasia and progressive apraxia of speech has highlighted the importance of speech rate as a diagnostic feature. We describe detailed investigation and comparison of speech rate (latencies and utterance length in single word/nonword production and speech rate in connected speech) on a range of experimental tasks in a man with progressive speech deterioration of 10 years dura- tion from Pick’s Disease. C.S. had a progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) together with progressive apraxia of speech (pAOS) with an absence of significant interlectual, phonological or semantic impairment. C.S. showed increased latencies but reduced word length compared to matched controls on single word and nonword repetition and reading, an absence of a syllabic length effect in either single word/nonword tasks or connected speech tasks. Further investigation suggested that underlying his speech pro- duction impairments were problems with speech initiation, termination and inhibition. Most impairments worsened with progression over a 12-month period. Results provide support for * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ(0)1626 774524; fax: þ(0)1626 774524. E-mail address: c.f.s.code@exeter.ac.uk (C. Code). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Neurolinguistics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ jneuroling 0911-6044/$ – see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2013.04.003 Journal of Neurolinguistics 26 (2013) 602–618