Types of Aphasia
There are 2 main categories of cortical aphasia: Nonfluent Aphasia and Fluent Aphasia.
Nonfluent Aphasias: Broca's Aphasia, Transcortical Motor Aphasia, Global (Mixed) Aphasia
Fluent Aphasias: Wernicke's Aphasia, Transcortical Sensory Aphasia, Conduction Aphasia, Anomic Aphasia
Nonfluent Aphasias
Damage near Broca’s Area causes Broca’s Aphasia (aka expressive aphasia)
Think: Broken speech
Speech Example: “Oh… it’s a… square… a… for food… umm.”
Transcortical Motor Aphasia is like Broca’s Aphasia, but the patient can repeat.
Think: Damage is on the motor cortex of the brain.
Think: Motors repeat the same sound over and over.
Global/Mixed Aphasia affects all modalities of language. It is due to damage in both the Broca’s and Wernicke’s regions and it is the most severe type of aphasia.
Think: Global = big = severe
Think: Mixed = both language centers affected
Fluent Aphasias
Damage near Wernicke’s Area causes Wernicke’s Aphasia.
Think: Wordy speech
Speech Example: “That’s the one over there with the thing. It knows how it got there, but not with the food.”
Transcortical Sensory Aphasia is like Wernicke’s Aphasia, but the patient can repeat.
Think: Damage is on the sensory cortex of the brain.
Think: Sensors repeat the same functions.
The arcuate fasciculus is the subcorical connection between Broca’s and Wernicke’s area.
Damage near the arcuate fasciculus causes Conduction Aphasia. Patients are fluent, yet make many paraphasic errors and cannot repeat.
Think: If the connection breaks, repeating signals cannot be conducted.
Anomic Aphasia is characterized by a disproportionately high severity of anomia (naming).