Neuromuscular: Aphasia Terminology

Question 1

Frequently involves the temporal lobe, Wernicke’s area or regions of the parietal lobe
Word output and speech production are functional
prosody is acceptable, but empty speech/jargon
Speech lacks any substance, use of paraphasias
Use of neologisms (substitution within a word that is so severe it makes the word unrecognizable)

Answer 1

Fluent Aphasia

Question 2

Frequently involved the frontal lobe (anterior speech center) of the dominant hemisphere is affected
Poor word output and dysprosodic speech *impairment in the rhythm and inflection of speech)
Poor articulation and increased effort for speech
Content is present, but impaired syntactical words

Answer 2

Non-fluent Aphasia

Question 3

Lesion: posterior region of superior temporal gyrus
“receptive aphasia”
Comprehension (reading/auditory) impaired
Good articulation, use of paraphasias
Impaired writing
Poor naming ability
Motor impairment not typical due to distance form Wernicke’s area to the motor cortex

Answer 3

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Question 4

Lesion: supramarginal gyrus, arcuate fasciculus
Severe impairment with repetition
Intact fluency, good comprehension
Speech interrupted by word-finding difficulties
Reading intact, writing impaired

Answer 4

Conduction Aphasia

Question 5

Lesion: 3rd convolution of frontal lobe
"Expressive aphasia"
Most common form of aphasia
Intact auditory and reading comprehension
Impaired repetition and naming skills
Frustration with language skills errors
Paraphasias are common
Motor impairment typical due to proximity of Broca's area to the motor cortex

Answer 5

Broca’s Aphasia

Question 6

Lesion: frontal, temporal, parietal lobes
Comprehension (reading/auditory) is severely impaired
Impaired naming, writing, repetition skills
May involuntarily verbalize, usually without correct context
May use nonverbal skills for communication

Answer 6

Global Aphasia

Question 7

Non-dysarthric and non-aphasic impairment of prosody and articulation of speech.
Verbal expression is impaired secondary to deficits in motor planning
Patient is unable to initiate learned movement (articulation of speech) even though they understand the task
Lesions are usually found in the left frontal lobe adjacent to Broca’s area

Answer 7

Verbal Apraxia

Question 8

Motor disorder of speech that is caused by an UMN lesion that affects the muscles that are used to articulate words and sounds
Speech is often noted as “slurred” and there may also be an effect on respiratory or phonatory systems due to the weakness

Answer 8

Dysarthria