Damage to the left precentral gyrus is associated with Apraxia of speech (AOS) in acute to subacute stroke patients, suggesting a role of this brain region in motor speech production 1).
A study supports the role of the left precentral gyrus in phonological output computation as well as seizure activity in a case of reading epilepsy 2).
Case reports
A Japanese patient with pure agraphia displaying differential disturbances in processing Kanji (morphogram) and Kana (syllabogram) letters after an infarction in the middle and superior portions of the left precentral gyrus. Kana errors reflected the patient's difficulty with retrieving both motor and visual letter images, whereas Kanji errors included partial letter stroke omissions or additions. This present case suggests that differences in writing disturbances between Kana and Kanji letters are caused by a differential dependency on letter motor images 3).