Echolalia

This article is about the speech disorder. For the album by Something for Kate, see Echolalia (album).
Echolalia
Other namesEchologia, echophrasia[1]
A silhouette of an autistic woman repeating the same lines that she hears again multiple times.
SpecialtyPsychiatry, neurology, speech–language pathology

Echolalia is the unsolicited repetition of vocalizations made by another person; when repeated by the same person, it is called palilalia. In its profound form it is automatic and effortless. It is one of the echophenomena, closely related to echopraxia, the automatic repetition of movements made by another person; both are "subsets of imitative behavior" whereby sounds or actions are imitated "without explicit awareness".[1] Echolalia may be an immediate reaction to a stimulus or may be delayed.[1]

Echolalia occurs in many cases of autism spectrum disorder and Tourette syndrome.[1][2] It may also occur in several other neurological conditions such as some forms of dementia or stroke-related aphasia.[1][3]

The word "echolalia" is derived from the Greek ἠχώ (ēchō), meaning "echo" or "to repeat",[4] and λαλιά (laliá) meaning "speech" or "talk"[5] (of onomatopoeic origin, from the verb λαλέω (laléo), meaning "to talk").

  1. ^ a b c d e Ganos C, Ogrzal T, Schnitzler A, Münchau A (September 2012). "The pathophysiology of echopraxia/echolalia: relevance to Gilles de la Tourette syndrome". Mov. Disord. 27 (10): 1222–29. doi:10.1002/mds.25103. PMID 22807284. S2CID 22422642.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Volkmar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference pmid19585352 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Liddell HG, Scott R. "ἠχώ". A Greek – English Lexicon, on Perseus. Tufts University. Retrieved October 6, 2013.
  5. ^ Liddell HG, Scott R. "λαλιά". A Greek – English Lexicon, on Perseus. Tufts University. Retrieved October 6, 2013.