B&B: Human communication

Broca’s Area

• Language production

Wernicke’s Area

• Language comprehension

• Near A1

Primary Auditory Cortex (A1)

• Receives and processes basic acoustic features

Phonagnosia

Impaired recognition of familiar voices despite relatively preserved hearing and other aspects of auditory processing.

Aphasia

An acquired impairment in language production and/or comprehension, typically resulting from brain damage.

Broca’s aphasia

• Agrammatism: Poor use of grammar

• Anomia: Unable to recall names of everyday objects

Wernicke’s Aphasia

• Individuals are generally unaware of deficits

• Speech is typically fluent, but may contain incorrect or meaningless words

• Deficits in spoken word recognition, language comprehension, and in converting thoughts into words

Conduction Aphasia

• Damage to the arcuate fasciculus (White matter connecting Wernicke’s and Broca’s area

• Produce fluent and meaningful speech with good comprehension

• Poor repetition

• Can’t repeat words that lack meaning