Logoclonia

Logoclonia (from Greek logos - speech and klonos - disorderly movement), a speech disorder belonging to paraphasias and characterized by the involuntary repetition of a syllable or even an entire word. The last syllable of a word or the last word of a phrase is repeated. It is caused by spasmodic contractions of the muscles involved in pronunciation; the muscle contractions are stronger and shorter than normal; the muscle spasms repeatedly follow one another with rapid alternation of contraction and relaxation phases. All subsequent words are usually pronounced correctly. Within a phrase, L. sometimes repeats several times; the number of repetitions is quite variable. Lit.-see lit. to art. Logopedics and Stuttering.