Viscous speech?

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Hello Doctor...  Thanks for taking my question...

In reading about temporal lobe epilepsy "traits," I often run into mention of "viscous speech" as a symptom and/or trait of someone with temporal lobe dysfunction.  My friend and I have looked up the word "viscous" in several dictionaries, but cannot find an adequate explanation for what viscous means in the context of "viscous speech."  

Can you shed some light on this?  

The reason we ask is that my friend's son has right temporal lobe epilepsy and often speaks in a rapid way, with no pauses in between words and sentences.  We're wondering if this is due to his temporal lobe dysfunction?

Thanks for any insight you can give.

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Yes, that helps a lot.  Thanks!  Now we stop scouring!  ;o)

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

Viscosity of speech has been reported in the medical literature with temporal lobe epilepsy by Rao et al from the Medical College of Wisconsin. They describe it as "the behavioural tendency to talk repetitively and circumstantially (round and round on the same topic) about a restricted range of topics." In their study it was seen more often in patients with epilepsy arising from the left temporal region or both sides and was thought to reflect very subtle dysfunctions in language due to involvement of the temporal lobe. Another report from Memphis describe viscosity of speech and actions as "detailed and ordered." Hope that helps.