Arcuate Fasciculus And Conduction Aphasia

547 Words2 Pages

To solve the argument about the relationship between arcuate fasciculus and conduction aphasia, more research into the brain activity of individuals with and without symptoms of conduction aphasia should be conducted, so that we could have a clearer understanding about the mechanism of how different areas of the brain are related to speech repetition problems. In fact, studies using FMRI have found that certain population have Broca’s and Wernicke’s located in different hemisphere of their brain (Bernal & Ardila, 2009). For these subjects, their Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are inherently dissociated. However, no problems in speech repetition have been reported in these individuals. In addition, Kempler and his colleagues (1988) used FMRI to …show more content…

Bernal and Ardila (2009) speculated that arcuate fasciculus is an accessory aid in transmitting information from the temporal lobe to premotor or motor cortex, but not directly to Broca’s area. According to Bernal and Ardila (2009), conduction aphasia is more likely to be a consequence resulting from premotor disconnection, which could impair the motor ability required for word sequencing and producing word syllables or segments in a proper order. Given that language areas in the brain are not damaged, patients with conduction aphasia can still retain their phonological awareness, and this is the reason why they can still be aware of their speech error and attempt to correct them. By contrast, for patients suffering from phonological paraphasia, they are not able to detect their own errors since the language areas in their brain are affected. In this model suggested by Bernal and Ardila (2009), arcuate fasciculus serves as a relay station to connect the Broca’s area with the premotor or motor areas. It clearly explains why arcuate fasciculus is closer to speech (motor function) rather than to language, and is also more congruent with the current neuroimaging results and clinical findings (Bernal & Ardila,

More about Arcuate Fasciculus And Conduction Aphasia

Open Document