Aphasia

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Aphasia

What is Aphasia?

Aphasia is the impairment of spoken or written language caused by injury to the brain. It is also commonly referred to as Dysphasia. There are several different categories and many different types of Aphasia.

What causes Aphasia?

Aphasia is usually the result of a brain tumor, lesion, stroke, or severe blow to the head. Right-handed people can only acquire Aphasia if they have an injury in the left cerebral hemisphere, whereas left-handed people can quire Aphasia from an injury in either the right or left cerebral hemisphere. Therefor, left-handed people are more prone to getting Aphasia.

Categories of Aphasia

There are several different systems for categorizing Aphasia. The more common one consists of two broad classifications: Broca's and Wernickes. In Broca's, the patient normally understands speech fairly well, but has difficulty in retrieving words and has hence naming objects or expressing themselves.

In Wernickes, the patient normally produces fluent but incomprehensible speech, or jargon, and comprehends poorly the speech of others.

The other systems places all types of Aphasia in categories labeled fluent and nonfluent. In fluent, the patient usually has a normal rate of speech without the hesitations or pauses common in nonfluent. Generally, people whose type of Aphasia falls under the fluent category have difficulty comprehending speech. In nonfluent, the patient usually produces effortful, telegraphic style speech marked by pauses. The ability of these patients to understand speech is usually good.

Types of Aphasia

There are many different types of Aphasia. Some of them are:

Global Aphasia: This is the most severe form of A...

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... remember certain automatic responses, like naming the days of the week, counting, and social responses, like please and thank you.

The most common characteristic in Aphasia is difficulty in naming.

Statistics

About one million people in the United States have Aphasia. The majority of these people have the disease as the result of a stroke. About one third of people with severe head injuries have it. It is estimated that about 80,000 people worldwide acquire aphasia each year. Most people who get it are in their middle to late years, although anyone can.

History of Aphasia

The earliest written references to speechlessness due to trauma can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Hypocrites. It has only been in the past 20 years that scientists have been able to do productive research on Aphasia and its origins.

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