Imagine being unable to produce fluent language and coherent sentences all the while you believe you’re speaking words of eloquence and consistency. Patients with aphasia often experience these effects as results of a stroke. Aphasia is a disorder in the ability to communicate, use, and comprehend language. Each year, approximately 80,000 individuals suffer from stroke -based aphasia. However, what if there were treatments or perhaps a way to reduce the chance of someone acquiring this disorder? Many doctors have looked into strokes leading to aphasia and the results remain mixed and entirely unsure but there have been some experiments conducted to further this field of research.
A stroke occurs when blood is not capable of reaching certain areas of the brain. When brain cells do not receive the regular amount of blood, brain cells die off due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients that the bodies blood supplies. A transient ischemic attack occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted temporally and is then quickly restored. Patients who experience these attacks will sometimes develop their language abilities within hours or within days after loss.
The frontal and parietal lobes in the right hemisphere of the brain pertain to expressing and processing language. Stroke’s that damage this portion of the brain lead patients to experience the inability to produce and understand spoken language, written responses, and even the ability to read. However, a stroke occurring in any portion of the brain can also lead to aphasia. Particularly after stroke, patients experience a phenomenon known as Global aphasia. Global aphasia is the most severe type of aphasia and patient’s are usually unable to recognize any words and are not able to...
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... would be able to target the specific areas of this patient that are incapable of producing language and could then look into those specific regions of the brain to discover what it leading to these defects in processing. Intensive therapy would also be required to enhance the patient’s language abilities and general speech abilities.
Works Cited
Davis, G. Albyin. "An Introductory Guide to Approaching Aphasia Research." NAA. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
"Effects of Stroke: Aphasia." Effects of Stroke. National Stroke Association, Aug. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
SY, Lee, Cheon HJ, and Yoon KJ. "Effects of Dual Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Aphasia in Chronic Stroke Patients." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
The symptoms of a right-hemisphere stroke are very much similar like the symptoms Mr. Fix-it is experiencing. For example, both suggest that functions on the left side of the body are completely neglected; therefore, the left visual section of the body does not respond effectively to stimuli due to the neglect. Damage to the right occipital lobe is very likely. The patient may have experienced some damage to areas 18 and 19 of the occipital lobe. “Damage to these association areas resulted in the patient’s failure to recognize items even when they have been seen before”, such as Mr. Fix-it’s deficiency to recognize geometric shapes (Carlson, 2010). Moreover, the patient could have also experience damage in the frontal lobe, specifically on area 8, in which it could have r...
Wernicke's Aphasia occurs from damage to the superior temporal gyrus and affects language comprehension, while speech production is unaffected, which is why it is referred to as "fluent aphasia." Wernicke's patients produce speech fluently, but it is mostly nonsensical speech and have trouble understanding what is being told to them. Unlike Broca's Aphasia patients, they are not aware of their speech problems.
A Transient Ischemic Attack, generally referred to as a TIA, is a type of stroke that only last a few min...
Stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain is blocked or condensed. Blood works to transport oxygen and other beneficial substances to the body’s cells and organs, as well as the brain. There are two main types of strokes that are known as Ischemic strokes and Hemorrhagic strokes. When the blood vessels that provides for the brain becomes congested, is it referred to as ischemic stroke, the most common stroke within adults. Blood clots, a cluster of blood that sticks together, are the cause of Ischemic strokes. Ischemic strokes also takes place when arteries become backed up with plague, leaving less blood to flow. Plague is cholesterol, calcium and fibrous and connective tissue that sticks to the walls of blood vessels. Ischemic strokes eternally damage the brain and cause a person's body to no longer function habitually.Some risk factors that may increase stroke are high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. Some stroke factors are also due to old age or having a family that has a history of strokes. Men are more likely to have a stroke but the most st...
Scientists are on the brink of doing the unthinkable-replenishing the brains of people who have suffered strokes or head injuries to make them whole again. If that is not astonishing enough, they think they may be able to reverse paralysis. The door is at last open to lifting the terrifying sentence these disorders still decree-loss of physical function, cognitive skills, memory, and personality.
Hegde, M. N. (2001). Pocketguide to treatment in speech-language pathology. (2nd ed., pp. 193-203). San Diego, CA: Singular Thomson Learning.
...ook at the effect that these variables had on measures of language impairment in people with stroke-induced aphasia. This study also supported the idea that an increased intensity of therapy was associated with improvements of language impairment.
Research illustrated connection between aphasia and depression (Robinson, Murata & Shimoda, 1999), social isolation (Sarno Taylor, 1997) and low self-esteem (Herrmann & Wallesch, 1989). Kauhanen and colleague (2000) conducted a research to investigate the prevalence and cause of post-stroke aphasia and to study the mental, neurological, and cognitive correlates with 106 patient who suffer from first ischemic stroke. The prevalence of major depression increased from 11 to 33% within the first year.
Jasmin, Luc. "Communicating with Someone with Aphasia." nlm.nih.gov. Ed. David Zieve. Medline Plus, 22 May 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"My most valuable tool is words, the words I can now use only with difficulty. My voice is debilitated - mute, a prisoner of a communication system damaged by a stroke that has robbed me of language," stated A. H. Raskins, one of approximately one million people in the United States who suffer from aphasia (1), a disorder which limits the comprehension and expression of language. It is an acquired impairment due to brain injury in the left cerebral hemisphere. The most common cause of aphasia is a stroke, but other causes are brain tumors, head injury, or other neuralgic illnesses. Of the estimated 400,000 strokes which occur a year, approximately 80,000 of those patients develop some form of aphasia (2). Another important observation is that within the United States, there are twice as many people with aphasia as there are individuals with Parkinson's disease (2). Yet, what is so astounding is the lack of public awareness about aphasia. Aphasia attacks an intricate part of a person's daily life - the simple act of communication and sharing. The disbursement of such a tool deprives an individual of education learned through their life, often leaving the ill fated feeling hopeless and alone. In considering the effects of aphasia, a deeper analysis of the two most common forms of aphasia will be examined: Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia. While both forms occur usually as a result of a stroke in the left hemisphere of the brain, their particular site of impairment produces different side effects in an individual's comprehension and speech. These regions have been further studied through experimental researches such as positron emission tomography (PET). Moreover, although there is currently no cure for the disorder, there are treatments and certain guidelines to follow when encountering an aphasic.
Cerebrovascular Accident a) Overview - definition and the effects of the stroke on the body A stroke is a serious, life-threatening medical condition that occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Stroke/Pages/Introduction.aspx) This condition is a common cause of death and disability, especially in older people. Some predisposing factors include: • hypertension • atheroma • cigarette smoking • diabetes mellitus It occurs when blood flow to the brain suddenly interrupted, causing hypoxia. The effects include paralysis of a limb or one side of the body and disturbances of speech and vision.
Stroke is a commonly known disease that is often fatal. This cellular disease occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted by either a blood clot halting the progress of blood cells in an artery, called an Ischemic stroke, or a blood vessel in the brain bursting or leaking causing internal bleeding in the brain, called a hemorrhagic stroke. When this happens, brain cells are deprived of oxygen and nutrients because the blood cells carrying these essential things are stopped, causing them to die. When the cells in the brain die, sensation or movement in a limb might be cut off and may limit an organism’s abilities. A person with stroke is affected depending on where in the brain the stroke occurs. In other words, symptoms of a stroke
Salonen, L. (2013). L. S. Vygotsky 's psychology and theory of learning applied to the rehabilitation of aphasia: A developmental and systemic view. Aphasiology, 27(5), 615-635. doi:10.
McDonnell, M.N., Bryan, J., Smith, A.E., & Esterman, A.J. (2011). Assessing cognitive impairment following stroke. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 33(9), 945-953.
In this world, humans and animals alike have come to communicate by using various mechanisms. Humans have advanced themselves beyond other organisms by using language, or a set of codes and symbols, in order to express themselves to others. Language has brought about a means to create new thoughts, to explore, and to analyze our everyday surroundings. It has also enabled us to retain past memories and to look deep into the advances for the future. However, for some individuals, this tool for communication has been plagued by a language and speech disorders, such as aphasia. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak or understand speech or written language. It is often detected at an early age, and contributes to the general class of speech and language disorders affecting "5% of school aged children" (1) . Aphasia is classified into three categories. The main two are receptive or sensory aphasia and expressive or motor aphasia. Receptive aphasia affects the input side and "the ability to understand spoken or written language may be partially or totally lost" (1) . Those with expressive aphasia "can speak but not find certain words or names, or may be totally unable to communicate verbally or by writing" (1) . For a majority of affected individuals, there is a combination of the two. The third type is conduction aphasia. This "involves disruption of transmission between the sensory and motor ends of the circuit" (1) . Here, individuals are able to produce speech despite the lack of connections to the input side. It seems that the ability to speak has a lot to do with your surroundings and how much emphasis was placed on developing this skill during the first few years after birth. Afterall, it's known that the first few years are critical because this is the time when the brain is "plastic" and is rapidly changing and being molded. By the time that adolescence is reached, the brain has become "less plastic". In this paper, I would like to explore theories proposed to try to understand the origins of this impairment.