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Aphasia: Broca's and Wernicke's Types, Symptoms and Examples

Medicine and health sciencesUpdated on 10.62 KB

Summary

This document explains aphasia, an acquired language impairment caused by brain damage from injury, stroke or seizure. It distinguishes non-fluent from fluent aphasias and describes Broca's, global and Wernicke's types, including their speech patterns, comprehension problems, lesion locations and writing examples. Students will learn how to tell these types apart.

Key points

  • Aphasia is an acquired impairment of language use caused by damage to specific brain areas, often from injury, stroke or seizure.
  • Aphasias are classified into non-fluent (difficulty producing fluent speech) and fluent (poor comprehension and less meaningful speech).
  • Broca's aphasia is non-fluent, slow and ungrammatical, caused by damage to Broca's area, and is considered a syntactic disorder with 'telegraphic speech'.
  • People with Broca's aphasia usually understand what they want to say but cannot express it.
  • Global aphasia severely affects all language functions and is caused by damage to Broca's and Wernicke's areas.
  • Fluent aphasia is associated with a temporal lobe lesion; Wernicke's aphasia patients are often unaware of their deficit and may produce jargon.

Test yourself

  1. 18. Aphasia: Aphasia is defined as an acquired impairment in the use of language due to damage to certain parts of the brain. This damage could be caused by injury, stroke, or seizure. The language deficits include difficulties in language comprehension and execution.
  2. 19. Major Types of Aphasias: All aphasias can be classified into two groups. Non-fluent aphasias involve difficulty producing fluent, articulated, or self-initiated speech. Fluent aphasias involve the inability to understand the language of others and the production of less meaningful speech than normal.
  3. 20. Non-Fluent Aphasias: Broca’s aphasia is a type of aphasia characterized by difficulties initiating well-articulated conversational speech. The language produced is slow, labored, and ungrammatical. This aphasia is caused by damage to Broca’s area of the brain.
  4. 21. Speech Difficulties: The speech of individuals with Broca’s aphasia is very halting. They have great difficulty in accurately producing the needed phonemes to say a word.
  5. 22. Broca’s Aphasia as a Syntactic Disorder: Broca’s aphasia is considered a syntactic disorder. The speech of individuals with this aphasia is characterized by the omission of 'little words' and is often referred to as 'telegraphic speech'.
  6. 23. Grammatical Understanding: Individuals with Broca’s aphasia will not always be able to determine which sentences are grammatical and which ones are not.
  7. 24. Understanding vs. Expression: Most individuals with Broca’s aphasia have a complete understanding of what they should say but find themselves unable to express it.
  8. 25. More Types of Non-Fluent Aphasia’s: Global aphasia is characterized by a severe depression of all language functioning. Individuals with this type of aphasia have poor language comprehension and speak in slow, labored jargon. It is caused by damage to Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas of the brain.
  9. 26. Fluent Aphasia: Fluent aphasics have no difficulty producing language but struggle with selecting, organizing, and monitoring their language production.
  10. 27. Temporal Lobe Lesion: Fluent aphasia is associated with a lesion in the temporal lobe.
  11. 28. Unawareness of Deficit: Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia are generally unaware of their language deficit. Their speech may sound normal, but it lacks coherence.
  12. 29. Conversation Example: The following is a conversation between an examiner (E) and a Wernicke's patient (P): E: How are you today Mrs. A? P: Yes E: Have I ever tested you before? P: No, I mean I haven't E: Can you tell me what your name is? P: No, I don't I… right I'm right now here E: What is your address? P: I cud /kd/ if I can help these like this like you know… to make it. We are seeing him. This is my father.
  13. 30. Jargonaphasia: Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia may exhibit jargonaphasia, which involves a semi-random selection of words and short phrases that make little sense.
  14. 31. Handwriting and Aphasia: The handwriting of individuals with aphasia often reflects their speech impediment.
  15. 32. Picture: This is the picture.
  16. 33. Example of Broca's Aphasia: A patient with Broca’s aphasia wrote this. Notice the use of very few words, but the words do make some sense.
  17. 34. Example of Wernicke's Aphasia: A patient with Wernicke’s aphasia wrote this. Notice that there are many words, but they don’t make much sense. Also, because they’re not struggling to find their words, the handwriting is better.

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FAQ

What causes aphasia?

Aphasia is caused by damage to certain parts of the brain, which may result from injury, stroke or seizure.

What is telegraphic speech in Broca's aphasia?

Telegraphic speech is the speech of people with Broca's aphasia, characterized by the omission of 'little words'.

Are people with Wernicke's aphasia aware of their language problems?

Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia are generally unaware of their language deficit, and their speech may sound normal even though it lacks coherence.

Test yourself

Flashcards

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Quiz

1. What defines aphasia according to the text?
2. Which area of the brain is damaged in Broca's aphasia?
3. What is 'telegraphic speech'?
4. Which type of aphasia is associated with a lesion in the temporal lobe?
5. What is jargonaphasia?
6. Why is handwriting in Wernicke's aphasia sometimes better than in Broca's?

Questions generated by AI from the document: check the answers against the text.