Aphasia

What is Aphasia?

Aphasia is a neurological disorder. It is caused by damage to the areas of the brain that are responsible for language, usually parts of the left hemisphere of the brain. The location of the damaged tissue determines how severely the aphasia affects the patient. Difficulty in expressing oneself when speaking, trouble understanding speech, and difficulty with reading and writing are the main signs of aphasia. Aphasia is a symptom of brain damage, not a disease. Although it impairs one's ability to speak with and understand others, aphasia does not affect intelligence. Aphasia can occur slowly or quickly; usually, it suddenly occurs due to a stroke or head injury, but it can also develop slowly if there is a brain tumor, infection, or dementia.

Who Can Get Aphasia?

ANYBODY can get aphasia. Age, gender, race, nationality, education, and vocation are not determining factors, although if you're doing a job with a high risk of getting whacked in the head, I think you'd be more at risk. You see, aphasia can result from a head injury, brain tumor, neurological problems, or stroke (most common). About 1 million Americans currently suffer from some form of aphasia. The majority of these people are elderly.

Video of a man with Broca's Aphasia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IiMEbMnPM

In the video, the man stuggles to speak coherently and communicate his feelings, although he can understand what the man asking him questions is saying. I felt pretty bad for the man when I watched it. He reminds me of my little sister, who had a speech impediment when she was little. She always got so frustrated when she couldn't say something right and respond when she fully understood what was being said to her, but she improved with speech therapy. Therapy can also assist those with aphasia, although they can never be fully cured of it.

Different Types of Aphasia

Global aphasia- the most severe form of aphasia in which the person can hardly understand spoken or written language and can't communicate well, read, or write.

Broca's aphasia- although the person can understand others and may be able to read, speech output is usually limited to four-word phrases. It's also called expressive or motor aphasia.

Mixed non-fluent aphasia- these patients also have great difficulty speaking like in Broca's aphasia, but their comprehension is limited to an elementary level.

Wernicke's aphasia- the ability to understand spoken words is greatly impaired. Fluent speech is possible, although it is often irregular.

Anomic aphasia- these patients can understand and read well, but they have difficulty finding the words to describe what they want to talk about and are generally vague

Famous People with Aphasia

Millions of people in the world suffer from aphasia. Some famous people who have/had it include:

Maurice Ravel
Jan Berry of Jan and Dean
Sven Nykvist
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Robert E. Lee
Joseph Chaikin
Sir John Hale