Aphasia

Aphasia

1. Fluent Aphasias - difficulties in language COMPREHENSION SKILLS

   • Wernicke's aphasia - deficits in language comprehension
     • commonly affected areas: posterior third of superior temporal gyrus
     • Deficits in: less deficits in understanding individual isolated spoken words but deficits in understanding
   • Conduction aphasia - fluent type of aphasia with impaired repetition skills
     • commonly affected areas: supramarginal gyrus, underlying white matter pathways, Wernicke's area, left insula and auditory cortex
     • Affernt

2. Nonfluent Aphasias - difficulties in language EXPRESSION with relatively intact language comprehension skills.

   • Broca's Aphasia - deficits in language expression and relatively intact comprehension
     • commonly affected areas: Left lateral frontal lob, pre-Rolandic suprasylvian region extending into adjacent subcortical perventricular white matter
     • Lesions to Broca's area cause: mild deficits in prosody and mild agraphia with occasional deficits in word finding pauses and mild dysarthira
     • Aphemia - person may have an isolated loss of ability to articulate words with intact abilities for spoken and written language
   • Transcortical Motor Aphasia - Most severe form of aphasia with a generalized effect on communication skills. Deficits in both comprehesion and expression
     • commonly affected areas: areas connecting the supplmentary motor cortex and Broca's areas; areas anterior and superior to Broca's area
     • Non-fluent type of aphasia with intact repetition skills
   • Global Aphasia - most severe form of aphasia with a generalized effect on communication skills; deficits in both comprehension and expression
     • Commonly affected areas: infarts in both divisions of middle cerebral artery; left fronto-parito-temporal zone of language.

3. Subcortical Aphasias - variable levels of deficits with language comprehension and/or language expression with some co-exsiting speech errors . Lesions in the basal ganglia or thalamus

4. Mixed Aphasias - combo of 2 or more aphasias