Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. But brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors, or from infections.
A condition that affects your ability to communicate, Aphasia can affect your speech, your ability to write and understand verbal and written language.
What is Aphasia?
Typically aphasia will occur after a stroke or head injury. It happens when you injure parts of the brain that contributes to language. The frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and the parietal lobe all affect the language areas of the brain. The frontal lobe controls cognitive abilities, the temporal lobe processes memories, and the parietal lobe regulates taste, touch, temperature and movement. Aphasia is most commonly caused from a stroke.
It also can come on gradually from a brain tumor or a disease that can cause progressive, permanent damage also known as degenerative.
Once diagnosed, the main treatment for aphasia is speech / language therapy. The need to relearn language skills and practice different ways to communicate is imperative in improving overall quality of life.
Symptoms and Types
There are six main symptoms of aphasia.
- Difficulty speaking clearly
- Trouble understanding speech
- Difficulty writing clearly
- Trouble understanding written words
- Difficulty remembering words
- Trouble remembering object names
There are multiple well-known aphasia syndromes that have specific patterns of language and speech. These patterns go hand in hand with the areas of the brain that a stroke damages.
Common types of aphasia
- Broca’s aphasia
- Wernicke’s aphasia
- Global aphasia
Broca’s aphasia
Broca’s Aphasia, otherwise known as “motor aphasia” is used to show that the ability to speak is damaged but other language abilities for the most part stay the same. When a stroke interrupts blood flow to the dominant frontal lobe of the brain, damage can occur to the Broca’s area of the brain. Frustration can be felt by the individual that is affected by Broca’s aphasia. They are not able to turn thoughts into words. It can make it difficult for a person to express themselves, but they usually are able to understand language.
Wernicke’s Aphasia
Wernicke’s Aphasia, is affected by the areas of the brain that are responsible for our ability to understand language. Located in the temporal lobe, these areas of the brain can affect the ability to understand others, or even themselves, when they speak. This speech is impossible to understand. Those affected with Wernicke’s aphasia create sentences with words arranged in what sounds like a random fashion. It can be referred to as logorrhea. Frustration can be felt by the individual that feels as if others should understand them. They are unable to grasp the fact that their language is impaired.
Global Aphasia
Global Aphasia, occurs when damage is widespread that it involves both Broca’s & Wernicke’s language area of the brain. Individuals with Global aphasia are unable to understand or speak language. In some cases, people with Global aphasias can still communicate by using the written language.
Promedcare
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