32 - Disorders of Language

Question 1

Aphasia

Answer 1

A disturbance in language as a result of neurological defect

Question 2

Common causes of acute onset aphasia

Answer 2

Stroke, penetrating head injury, surgical resection

Question 3

Common insidious, progressive causes of aphasia

Answer 3

Dementia, neoplastic changes

Question 4

Common paroxysmal, episodic causes of aphasia

Answer 4

Focal seizures, migraine

Question 5

Paroxysmal

Answer 5

Stereotypic symptoms between episodes

Question 6

Commonality of language lateralisation in the brain

Answer 6

~95% of right handers and ~70% of left handers

Question 7

Example of lateralisation of language

Answer 7

In people who have had a corpus collectomy, if show them an object in the left visual field (processed by right hemisphere), can’t name object, even though they know what it is, can use it, etc?

Question 8

Aspect of speech that right hemisphere might play

Answer 8

Right hemisphere may play a role in nonpropositional
speech, prosody and paralingistic
aspects of speech

Question 9

Artery important for parietal and temporal regions (superficial)

Answer 9

Middle cerebral artery (superior and inferior divisions)

Question 10

Area supplied by superior middle cerebral artery

Answer 10

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, sensory, motor regions of brain

Question 11

Area supplied by middle cerebral artery

Answer 11

Temporal, parietal regions.

Visual tracts

Question 12

Basic divisions in language
1
2

Answer 12

Production (producing an appropriate output sequence of words)

Selection (choosing appropriate content, EG nouns)

Question 13

Non-fluid language disorder

Answer 13

Deficits in language production
Anterior lesions (superior middle cerebral artery)
Loss of grammatical structure
Intact selection of content
EG Broca's aphasia

Question 14

Fluid language disorder

Answer 14

Deficits in language selection
Posterior lesion (inferior division of middle cerebral artery)
Impaired selection of content
Intact grammatical structure
EG Wernicke's aphasia

Question 15

Broca’s area

Answer 15

In prefrontal cortex.

Made up of two main gyri: pars triangularis, pars opercularis

Question 16

Part of brain associated with language selection

Answer 16

Temporoparietal association neocortex

Question 17

Temporoparietal association neocortex

Answer 17

Part of brain associated with language selection

Supramarginal gyrus.
Angular gyrus
Wernicke’s area

Question 18

White matter tract thought to link Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas (among others)

Answer 18

Arcuate fasciculus

Question 19

Wernicke's aphasia 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Answer 19

1) Fluent jargonistic language output
2) Neologisms
3) Paraphasic errors eg. boap for boat
4) Impaired comprehension
5) Right quadrantanopsia (can’t see
6) No motor weakness
7) Often from a posterior lesion (inferior middle cerebral artery infarct)

Question 20

Broca's aphasia 
1
2
3
4
5

Answer 20

1) Non-fluent, highly effortful language output
2) Telegrammatic
3) Preserved comprehension
4) Right face and arm weakness
5) Often from a anterior lesion (superior middle cerebral artery infarct)

Question 21

Conduction aphasias
1
2
3

Answer 21

1) Fluent aphasia, but more meaningful than Wernicke’s
2) Relatively intact basic auditory comprehension
3) Poor repetition of words

Question 22

Transcortical motor aphasia
1
2
3

Answer 22

1) Non-fluent aphasia
2) Muteness at most severe
3) Repetition is preserved

Question 23

Mechanisms of recovery
1
2

Answer 23

1) Contralateral transfer

2) Ipsilateral transfer

Question 24

Contralateral transfer
1
2
3

Answer 24

1) Early Hemispherectomy
2) Neonatal infarction
3) Major developmental
anomalies

Question 25

Ipsilateral transfer
1
2

Answer 25

1) Focal developmental anomaly

2) Adult-onset stroke

Question 26

Appearance of brains of patients who have recovered from language deficits best

Answer 26

Both contralateral and ipsilateral plasticity