Speech disorders

Question 1

What is aphasia?

Answer 1

Difficulty with language and speech

Question 2

1) Wernicke’s/receptive aphasia is caused by a lesion where?
2) What artery supplies this area?
3) How does Wernicke’s aphasia present?
4) Is comprehension impaired?

Answer 2

1) Superior temporal gyrus
2) Inferior division of the middle cerebral artery
3) Sentences that make no sense, word substitution and neologisms but speech remains fluent
4) Yes

Question 3

1) Broca’s/expressive aphasia is caused by a lesion where?
2) What artery supplies this area?
3) How does it present?
4) Is comprehension impaired?

Answer 3

1) Inferior frontal gyrus
2) Superior division of the MCA
3) Non-fluent, laboured, and halting speech. Repetition is impaired
4) No

Question 4

1) Conduction aphasia is caused by damage to the connection between Wernicke’s and Broca’s area - what is this connection called?
2) What classically damages this area?
3) How does it present?
4) Is comprehension impaired?

Answer 4

1) Arcuate fasciculus
2) Stroke affecting the arcuate fasciculus
3) Speech is fluent but repetition is poor. Aware of the errors they are making
4) No

Question 5

1) What is dysarthria?
2) Name 2 causes of dysarthria

Answer 5

1) Difficulty with articulation due to incoordination or weakness of the muscles involved in speech production
2) Cerebellar disease, extrapyramidal disease (i.e. Parkinsonism), pseudobulbar palsy and bulbar palsy

Question 6

1) What is dysphonia, and what causes it?
2) Name a cause

Answer 6

1) Difficulty with speech volume due to weakness of respiratory muscles or vocal cords
2) Guillain Barre syndrome, myasthenia gravis