Disorders of language

Question 1

What is an aphasia?

Answer 1

Disturbance in language as a result of brain damage

Question 2

How is a language disorder different to a speech disorder?

Answer 2

Speech disorders may be present when language abilities are still intact

eg. dental anaesthesia - difficult to speak

Question 3

What are some of the causes of aphasia?

Answer 3

Acute onset: stroke, penetrating head injury, surgical resection

Insidious onset: dementia, neoplastic change

Paroxysmal-episodic: focal seizures, migraine

Question 4

Describe the lateralisation of language?

Answer 4

Left hemispheric dominance

95% of right handers and 70% of left handers have left lateralised language

Question 5

Describe the role of the right hemisphere in language?

Answer 5

May play a role in non-propositional speech, prososdy and paralinguistic aspects of speech

Question 6

What is the arterial supply to the language areas of the brain?

Answer 6

Middle cerebral artery - superior and inferior divisions

Question 7

What do the superior and inferior divisions of the middle cerebral artery supply?

Answer 7

Question 8

Describe the difference between language production and language selection?

Answer 8

Production: producing appropriate output sequences

Selection: choosing appropriate content

Question 9

Which aspects of language (production or selection) are fluent and non-fluent language disorders associated with?

Answer 9

Fluent: selection

Non-fluent: production

Question 10

Describe the major differences between fluent and non-fluent aphasias?

Answer 10

Question 11

Which type of language disorders are Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias?

Answer 11

Broca’s aphasia: non-fluent aphasia

Wernicke’s aphasia: fluent aphasia

Question 12

What is the arcuate fasiculus?

Answer 12

A hypothetical tract that is thought to link Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas

Question 13

Describe the characteristics of Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 13

Fluent, jargonistic language

Impaired comprehension

No motor weakness

Right quadrantonopsia

Question 14

Describe the characteristics of Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 14

Non-fluent, highly effortful language

Telegrammatic speech

Preserved comprehension

Right face and arm weakness

Question 15

What is conduction aphasia?

Answer 15

Fluent aphasia, but more meaningful than Wernicke’s type

Intact basic auditory comprehension

Poor repetition of words

Question 16

What is transcortical motor aphasia?

Answer 16

Non-fluent aphasia

Muteness at most severe

Repetition preserved

Question 17

Describe the mechanisms of recovery from aphasias?

Answer 17

Contralateral transfer

Ipsilateral reorganisation