Aphasia and Language

Aphasia is definitively a language disorder that commonly results from either stroke or brain damage to a specific area of the brain. There are two major categories of aphasia: expressive (motor) and receptive (sensory).
Expressive aphasics can understand language,but can't express it. In other words, they recognize words, but can't find the means to articulate them. They usually possess the intellectual capabilities for speech. Much of their communication consists of pulling, pointing, or gesturing.
Receptive aphasics don't understand speech but have no trouble speaking. They can ramble on quite fluently, but when one examines the actual content of their sentences, one can see that they lack meaning. The receptive aphasic may also ignore sounds, hearing at one moment, but ignoring the next. This can cause them to be though deaf. There is usually a discrepancy between their intelligence and actual ability to communicate.

Common Types of Aphasia

Broca's Aphasia is caused by damage to Broca's area in the brain which is located in the left temporal lobe above the Sylvian fissuew. Symptoms include an inability for the afflicted person to express themself in complex sentences and agrammatism, a loss of the ability to use participles such as "and" or "the". Despite these difficulties in expressing language, they can understand it. They just can't use grammar. The most famous example of Broca's aphasia is Broca's patient, Tan. Tan was unable to utter anything than the word, "tan".

Wernicke's Aphasia results from an injury to Wernicke's area located where the three lobes of the brain meet. Patients with this disorder can speak in complete, grammatically correct sentences, but these sentences are void of meaning. The person afflicted with this type of aphasia lacks to ability to tie words to meaning. This is literally the opposite problem of Broca's Aphasia. Here, rather than understanding words but being unable to speak them, the patient can speak words, but doesn't understand them. They also cannot repeat sentences which are said to them.

Anomia is an inability to remember the name of anything. This type of aphasia can be universal, or it can apply to specific objects such as fruit or cars.

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia is similar to Wernicke's Aphasia in that they can speak, but unlike Wernicke's, they can repeat what is said to them. This aphasia results from damage to the cortical sections of the brain around Wernicke's area. Those afflicted with this aphasia can recognize words but not word meanings.

Semantic Aphasia is a loss of specific information to the patient. He or she can no longer connect a word meaning to the word.

Transcortical Motor Aphasia is caused by damage to the cortical sections around Broca's area. These people do not speak unless they are prompted to do so. When speaking, they use only short, sparse sentences, similar to those of patients with Broca's Aphasia, but they can repeat longer, complex sentences.

Conduction Aphasia is an inability to repeat words that have no meaning to the afflicted person. This disorder is particularly serious because it results in the condition that the patient literally cannot learn new words, as these words don't yet hold meaning for them.

Each of these disorders cause trouble not only in the linguistic aspect of the afflicted person's life, but in the social aspect as well. For these people, communication, the foundation of all social activity, is a struggle. They may feel isolated or hopeless. Here are a few insights into the personal life of the aphasic:

  • A.H. Raskin: The Words I Lost
  • Chattanooga Policeman Speaks After Seven Years of Silence