Romanian -English Group [622408]

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Droc Ana
Romanian -English Group
16 January 2018

Types of aphasia

Related to brain pathology aphasia has become the most investigated cognitive
syndrome. The scientific field concerned with the study of human cognition and its
disorders (cognitive deficits) is cognitive neuroscience. Normally aphasia has been
studied from diverse angles by taking into consideration the areas of the brain
involved in the impairment, the affected linguist ic level and treatment possibilities.
Throughout the history there have been several classifications attributed to
aphasia. The classification proposed by the Boston Group (Kaplan, Goodglass etc.)
which continue the development of the ideas suggested by W ernicke regarding the
organization of t he language in the human brain.
As reported by Alfredo Ardila there are only two main forms of aphasia
Broca -type and Wernicke -type aphasia . Benson assumed that there are three types of
aphasic syndromes: Broca, Wernicke and parietal conduction aphasia all related to
damage in the „brain language area‟ . Other types of aphasias have been introduced as
additional language impairments, for instance, transcortical sensory aphasia,
transcortical motor aphasia, anomic aphasia and global aphasia. These have been
regarded as subtypes of aphasia syndromes which are generally referred to in
neurology and cognitive neurosciences. In order to have a clear and concise vision on
the different types and subtypes of aphasias, I will add a short description by dividing
them into three categories: Broca‟s aphasia, Wernicke‟s aphasia and other types of
aphasias.

1. Broca’s aphasia (non -fluent or expressive aphasia)
Characterised by the damage of Broca‟s area, Broca‟s aphasia also known as aphemia,
efferent or kinetic motor aphasia, expressive aphasia, verbal aphasia, syntactic aphasia
or agrammatism, this type of impairment is referred to as the most common of all
aphas ic disorders characterized by: poor vocabu lary including only a few words or
syllables, the patient thus adopting a telegraphic style; phonematic paraphasias or

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‛phonetic disintegration‟ (production of linguistic structures, especially wo rds with
incorrect phonemes); syntax disorder (agrammatism); word finding problems; poor
pronunciation; poor melodic prosody; poor right -hand writing; depressiveness; limited
communication.
Patients with Broca‟s aphasia often use verbs in their infinite of past participle
forms, or sometimes the present simple wit h the third person singular. Understanding
of the grammatical structure is compromised. Passive forms of the verbs are difficult
to be understood.
Broca‟s aphasics become frustrated as they are aware of their difficulties
which impair them to lead a norma l life. The phrases they utter are short in length and
their reading and writing abilities are damaged as well.

2. Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent or receptive aphasia)
Known also as sensory aphasia, receptive aphasia, central aphasia or verbal agnosia
Wernicke‟s aphasia is the result of damage that occurs in Wernicke‟s area. The
impairments in this type of aphasia can be observed at the level of the language
elements, n amely the lexical (vocabulary) and semantic (meanings) ones.
Speech in case of patients with Wernicke‟s aphasia is fluent but sometimes
these individuals have difficulties in understanding language. Wernicke‟s aphasia
(fluent, sensory or receptive aphasia) is characterized by: inability to understand
written and s poken language; verbal diarrhea ; seman tic paraphasias; the use of
neologisms; absence of mea ningful words; impaired reading ability; written lan guage
impairments, paragraphias paragrammatism – the substitution of grammatical
morphemes in spontaneous speech; alexia – loss of the capacity to read; inability to
communicate. Christiansen concludes that there are two major characteristic defects
in Wernicke‟s aphasia: ”defects in phoneme discrimination (inability to understand
„the phonological composition of speech‟ an d in verbal memory ”(Christiansen and Julie
2).

3. Other types of aphasias
3.1 Transcortical sensory aphasia
Transcortical sensory aphasia is considered to be a subtype of Wernicke‟s aphasia. It
is ‟‟an impairment so littl e spoken about ‟‟(Boatman 1643) . In their review highlighted
the most significant disturbances observed in this type of aphasia. Therefore, patients

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with this impairment present good repetition skills, fluency of speech, verbal
paraphasias and neologisms as well as empty speech.

3.2 Transcortical motor aphasia
One of the characteristics of transcortical motor aphasia is non -fluent language.
Patients with this type of aphasia also present good comprehension and repetition
skills and their ability to form correct grammatical utterances i s preserved. When
asked to answer a question, aphasics have the tendency to repeat the words that they
heard in the question. It is a language disturbance characteristic to the pragmatic level.

3.3 Transcortical mixed aphasia
It is a rare type of apha sic syndrome referred to as „isolation syndrome‟ (Rose, F.
Clifford, et al 215). A s it seems that in this case „the language area becomes isolate d
from the rest of the brain. ‟‟It is characterized by severe speaking and comprehension
deficits but w ith intact repetition ability ‟‟ (National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke ).
People with transcortical mixed aphasia try to formulate correct sentences and
to understand wh at they are being told to but, on the other hand they can repeat
complex utterances without any difficulty. They are nonfluent and speak only if they
are spoken to. Their reading and writing abilities are impaired as well. A patient with
this type of aphasia may exhibit striking echolalia .

3.4 Global aphasia
Global aphasia is one of the most serious types of aphasia as it regarded as a mixture
of three types of aphasias: Broca, Wernicke and conduction aphasia. In a research on
speech disorders in stroke patients Mirjana V idović affirmed that global aphasia is the
most commo n of all types of aphasia.
At the beginning, the patient cannot speak or his/her speech is limited purely
to stereotypes. He/She does not understand what he/she is told to but he/she
can execute short commands such as stand up, sit down etc. He/She is una ble
to use repetition and has limited ability to read and write. The recovery rate of
global aphasia is relatively low compared to other types of aphasias. (Ardila
366)

Each person with aphasia has a unique case. Language plays a major role in our liv es
and without the ability to communicate fully is very difficult and can lead to
depression.

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Works Cited

1. “All Disorders.” National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke , U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services,
www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/aphasia/aphasia.htm/ . Accesed 10 December
2017.
2. Ardila, Alfredo. Aphasia Handbook , Florida International University, Miami,
Florida, USA, 2014.
3. Boatman, Dana. "Transcortical sensory aphasia " Revisited and re vised in Brain ,
vol.123, 2000 .
4. Christiansen, and Julie Ann. “ Fluent Aphasia .” Linguistics: an
interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences , 1 Jan. 2008 , pp. 2-3.
5. Rose, F. Clifford, et al. Aphasia . Whurr Publishers, 1988.