| Damage can occur to the basal ganglia or to the frontal lobes which control initiation of speech, causing mutism when damaged. |
| In this state, known clinically as akinetic mutism, the patient's eyes can still move and they may appear to be following what is going on around them, but in fact the patient is not aware of their surroundings at this stage. |
| Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder that is usually specific to certain settings, such as a school classroom. |
| Cousin Primitivo himself, with all the wisdom of the ancients, could not draw him out of his mutism. |
| Dumb walls merely, their mutism leaves large scope to imagination, and one may conjecture any but the right thing. |
| Selective mutism would manifest only in particular social situations rather than globally. |
