CD 422: Types of Aphasia

For people in CD 422: Acquired Neurological Disorders at The University of Alabama

Nonfluent Aphasia

Aphasia that is characterized by limited verbal output

Broca’s Aphasia

Nonfluent aphasia resulting from damage to the third frontal convolution; perisylvian

What are some characteristics of Broca’s Aphasia?

• Nonfluent and effortful speech

• Agrammatic

• Slow rate and uneven flow

• Impaired confrontational naming

• Poor oral reading

• Writing laboriously with many spelling errors and letter omissions

Transcortical Motor Aphasia (TMA)

Nonfluent aphasia resulting from damage to the anterior superior frontal lobe; extrasylvian

What are some of the characteristics of TMA?

• Preserved repetition types/ echoalia

• Reduced spontaneous speech

• Naming problems

• Preserved overlearned speech (EX: counting numbers)

• Disinterested in writing

Transcortical Mixed Aphasia

Nonfluent aphasia that results from damage to the watershed region

What are some characteristics of Transcortical Mixed Aphasia?

• Extremely limited spontaneous verbal expression

• Repetition combined with sentence completion

• Severely impaired auditory comprehension

• Mostly unimpaired automatic speech

• Severe reading and writing impairments

Global Aphasia

Nonfluent aphasia that results from widespread, diffuse hemispheric damage

What are some characteristics of Global Aphasia?

• Severely reduced fluency

• Impaired repetition, naming, auditory comprehension, and reading/writing skills

Fluent Aphasia

Aphasia characterized by nonsensical fluent words

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Fluent aphasia resulting from damage to the posterior portion of the superior temporal gyrus in the left hemisphere

What are some characteristics of Wernicke’s Aphasia

• Combination of fluent and jargon-filled speech

• Poor auditory comprehension

• No paralysis or paresis

• Lack of frustration in failed communication

• Generally intact grammatical form

• Impaired repetition

• Rapid rate of speech

Transcortical Sensory Aphasia (TSA)

Fluent aphasia that results from damage in the temporoparietal region

What are some characteristics of TSA?

• Good repetition skills

• Unilateral neglect

• Generally good syntactic skills

• Paraphasias

• Absence of press of speech

• Echoalic behavior

• Writing problems

Conduction Aphasia

Fluent aphasia that results from damage to the arcuate fasciculus and supramarginal gyrus

• Actual location of damage debated

What are some characteristics of Conduction Aphasia?

• Paraphasic fluency

• Good comprehension

• Impaired repetition

• Recognition of errors

• Primarily commits phonemic paraphasia

• Variable reading problems

• Writing problems

Anomic Aphasia

Fluent aphasia that results from (debatable) inferior and/or portions of the middle temporal gyri

What are some characteristics of Anomic Aphasia?

• Persistent and severe naming problems in the context of relatively intact language skills

• Fluent speech and normal syntax

• Verbal paraphasias

• Good auditory comprehension

• Normal or near-normal reading and writing

Atypical Aphasia/Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

A neurological syndrome which causes degeneration of neurons and deterioration of brain tissue