Question

Lesion at which site is associated with impaired emotional prosody (loss of emotional tone/melody of speech)?

• A. Cingulate gyrus
• B. Superior temporal gyrus
• C. Parietal lobe
• D. Precentral gyrus

Hint:

Which limbic gyrus gives speech its emotional color?

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Define emotional prosody.
Prosody is the melodic, rhythmic and emotional intonation of speech that conveys feeling beyond the literal words. Emotional (affective) prosody is processed largely by the non-dominant (right) hemisphere and limbic structures.

Step 2: Role of the cingulate gyrus.
The anterior cingulate gyrus is a core limbic region governing the emotional and motivational content of vocalization and the affective coloring of speech. Lesions here impair the generation and modulation of emotional prosody (aprosodia), causing flat, monotonous, affectless speech.

Step 3: Apply to the options.
Among the choices, the cingulate gyrus is the limbic structure tied to emotional prosody, making it the best answer for the site of lesion.

Step 4: Why the others are wrong.
The superior temporal gyrus relates to auditory/receptive language (Wernicke), the parietal lobe to somatosensation and integration, and the precentral gyrus to primary motor output of articulation — none is the primary seat of affective prosody.

Key fact: The cingulate gyrus, a limbic structure, governs the emotional tone of speech (emotional prosody).