Wernicke's & Broca's Aphasia

        Wernicke's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is the cause of left-hemisphere damage.  The area of the brain where this occurs is within the left inferior cortex.  An individual with this deficiency does not have a problem with getting the words out, as in they don't stutter, but the words have a fluidity to them. The individual is able to say words, but these words don't have any meaning. These individuals understand the dimensions of the conversation, and even though the words lack any concrete meaning, the individual doesn't get frustrated with them-self.  Their words can be thought of as a "word salad". Also, they are unable to understand verbal speech or even sign language, which can be a comprehension issue. This type of Aphasia has a relatively normal or fluid production of words, but these words come out as jibberish.  Therefore these individuals have a difficultly of actually comprehending the language or the content (of the conversation).

 video example 1    video example 2

(I do not own any rights to these videos)

        Broca's Aphasia is a language deficiency that is also the cause of left-hemisphere damage, which is often thought of as a stroke.  Broca's Area is located in the left inferior frontal cortex.  People with this disorder struggle to get the words out and because of this, they often become frustrated with themselves.  They do not have any difficulties with comprehension, but they may often stutter to try to get the correct words or sounds out.  It is a motor problem with trying to get the words outs properly, which is linked to functions in the frontal lobe.  Even though people with this type of aphasia have a difficulty to produce words, the words still makes sense; there is comprehension of what is being asked.

                                             video example 1    video example 2              

                                        (I do not own any rights to these videos)

       Hope you enjoyed this introduction into two vary famous types of aphasia! This language dysfunction is often cause my damage to the brain and isn't just something that happens when you wake up one morning. It affects, according to the link below, "....80,000 individuals acquire aphasia each year from strokes. About one million people in the United States currently have aphasia." Thank you for visiting this page today, and hope you enjoyed today's psych knowledge!

information on aphasia