Aphasia forms and symptoms

Aphasia: forms and symptoms

Depending on the location of the damage in the brain and the associated symptom complexes usually the motor (Broca aphasia), sensory (Wernicke aphasia), global and amnestic aphasia are separated from each other.

contents

• Aphasia: forms and symptoms
• Motor aphasia: Above all, a disorder of speech production
• Sensory aphasia: Limited understanding of speech makes communication more difficult
• Global aphasia: When all symptoms come together
• Amnestic aphasia: Lack of access to your own vocabulary

Motor aphasia: Above all, a disorder of speech production

Motor aphasia is the name given to specific aphasic symptoms that occur when a particular area of ​​the brain is damaged. Due to the first detailed description of the symptom complex in 1861 by the French physician P. Broca, motor aphasia is still called "Broca aphasia".

Motor aphasia mainly affects the production of speech, while speech understanding is largely preserved. The spontaneous language seems strained and unaffected with many breaks. In particular, there are misconceptions within the words (phonematic paraphasias, e.g., "pen" to "pencil") and partly to the use of meaning-like words (semantic paraphasias, e.g., "pencil" to "pen"), the vocabulary is limited. In most cases sentences can only be produced in telegram style, since small connection words such as articles (the / that) or prepositions (on / in / in / behind) are omitted (agrammatism, eg "Junge Schule" instead of "Der Junge geht zu Schule" ). The reduced, robotic style makes it difficult to identify not only the content but also the transported feelings of the speaker. Especially good narrators suffer very much from these linguistic limitations. Even when writing and reading the problems described become clear.

Sensory aphasia: Limited understanding of speech makes communication more difficult

The symptoms of sensory aphasia were described in 1874 by the German physician C. Wernicke. In the so-called "Wernicke Aphasia", which in turn occurs after injury to a circumscribed area of ​​the brain, speech understanding and self-perception are particularly affected. Thus, it comes to all sorts of meaningless appearances, the speech production is indeed fluid, but the sentences are often nested, clauses are doubled and the explanations are often "run into the void". It often comes to confusion and even the formation of new words (neologisms , eg "Lernhaus" to "school"), but also to sound confusion like in motor aphasia. With pronounced symptoms one even speaks of a "jargon aphasia". At the same time, the person concerned appears very confused to the other party. While sensory-affected aphasics can hardly understand each other's content, the mood and intention of the speaker are clearly evident, because sentence melody and emphasis are preserved. Reading and writing skills are affected accordingly, and especially the reading suffers from the disturbed speech understanding.

Global aphasia: When all symptoms come together

The most limited are people with global aphasia, because production of spontaneous speech and speech comprehension can be equally affected. At first, often no linguistic communication is possible. Repeated repetitions of words, syllables or sounds ("tamtamtamtam") often occur, the same words of speech and words are used again and again ("oh, human!" And "oje, oje, oje"), which in the professional world as stereotypes and Automatisms are called. But also in the case of global aphasia, as with the motor and sensory, it can lead to new growth of words as well as to gross confusion of sounds and meaning. Spontaneous discussions are not possible, writing and reading skills are - at least temporarily - completely lost. In many cases there is an immense lack of communication.

Amnestic aphasia: Lack of access to your own vocabulary

The easiest form of the aphasic disorder is called amnestic aphasia, because the spontaneous language is affected mainly by word-finding disorders. There are few phonetic and verbal confusions, and speech comprehension, like reading and writing skills, can be slightly reduced. The difficulties in finding a word are usually compensated by the description of the term (eg "school" as "where children learn to write"). Since people with amnesic aphasia often have to cope with fewer additional (physical) restrictions, their ability to communicate remains largely intact. Nevertheless, they suffer from their symptoms, in particular because their slight linguistic breakdowns in work (e.g., phone calls) and everyday life (e.g., shopping) are strange to their interlocutors and the sufferers are aware of it. (Dipl.Päd. Jeanette Viñals Stein, non-medical practitioner)

Literature:
Masuhr, Neumann: Neurology, Thieme 2007

Also read:
Aphasia - speech disorder & communication disorder
Aphasia: treatment options