Language disorders  aphasia Broca's aphasia Wernicke's aphasia global aphasia nominal aphasia conduction aphasia causes of aphasia diagnosis of aphasia treatment for aphasia prognosis of aphasia |
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What causes aphasia?
Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain. Many times, the cause of the brain injury is a stroke. A stroke occurs when, for some reason, blood is unable to reach a part of the brain. Brain cells die when they do not receive their normal supply of blood, which carries oxygen and important nutrients. Other causes of brain injury are
severe blows to the head, brain tumors, brain infections, and other conditions of the brain. Aphasia can develop after an individual sustains a brain injury from a stroke, head trauma, tumor, or infection, such as herpes encephalitis. As a result of this injury, the pathways for language comprehension or production are disrupted or destroyed. For most people, this means damage to the left hemisphere of the brain. (In 95 to 99% of right-handed people, language centers are in the left hemisphere, and up to 70% of left-handed people also have left-hemisphere language dominance.) According to the traditional classification scheme, each form of aphasia is caused by damage to a different part of the left hemisphere of the brain. This damage affects one or more of the basic language functions: speech, naming (the ability to identify an object, color, or other item with an appropriate word or term), repetition (the ability to repeat words, phrases, and sentences), hearing comprehension (the ability to understand spoken language), reading (the ability to understand written words and their meaning), and writing (the ability to communicate and record events with text). |
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More information on aphasia
What is aphasia? - Aphasia is a defect or loss of language function in which the comprehension or expression of words (or nonverbal equivalents of words) is impaired as a result of brain injury.
What is Broca's aphasia? - Broca's aphasia, also called motor aphasia, results from damage to the front portion or frontal lobe of the language-dominant area of the brain.
What is Wernicke's aphasia? - Wernicke's aphasia is caused by damage to the side portion or temporal lobe of the language-dominant area of the brain.
What is global aphasia? - Global aphasia is caused by widespread damage to the language areas of the left hemisphere. As a result, all basic language functions are affected.
What is nominal aphasia? - Nominal aphasia is a form of aphasia in which the subject has difficulty remembering or recognizing names which the subject should know well.
What is conduction aphasia? - Conduction aphasia is a relatively rare form of aphasia, caused by damage to the nerve fibres connecting Wernicke's and Broca's areas.
What causes aphasia? - Aphasia is caused by damage to one or more of the language areas of the brain. This damage affects one or more of the basic language functions.
How is aphasia diagnosed? - Commonly used tests to diagnose aphasia include the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, the Western Aphasia Battery, and possibly, the Porch Index of Speech Ability.
What's the treatment for aphasia? - Aphasia treatment therapy strives to improve an individual's ability to communicate by helping the person to use remaining abilities, to restore language abilities.
What's the prognosis of aphasia? - The outcome of aphasia is difficult to predict given the wide range of variability of the condition. The location of the injury is important and is clue to prognosis. |
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