Aphasia: A Language Disorder :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Aphasia A Language Disorder My most valuable tool is delivery, the words I can now use only with difficulty. My voice is enervated - mute, a prisoner of a communicating system damaged by a stroke that has robbed me of language, stated A. H. Raskins, one of approximately one gazillion people in the United States who suffer from aphasia (1), a disorder which limits the acquaintance and expression of language. It is an acquired impairment due to brain injury in the go forth cerebral cerebral hemisphere. The most parkland cause of aphasia is a stroke, but other causes are brain tumors, head injury, or other neuralgic illnesses. Of the estimated 400,000 strokes which find a year, approximately 80,000 of those patients develop some form of aphasia (2). Another outstanding observation is that within the United States, there are twice as many people with aphasia as there are individuals with Parkinsons distemper (2). Yet, what is so astounding is the lack of public awareness about a phasia. Aphasia attacks an composite part of a persons daily life - the simple act of communication and sharing. The disbursement of such a tool deprives an individual of education learned through their life, often leaving the ill fated feeling unhopeful and alone. In considering the effects of aphasia, a deeper analysis of the two most common forms of aphasia will be examined Brocas aphasia and Wernickes aphasia. While both forms occur usually as a result of a stroke in the left hemisphere of the brain, their particular site of impairment produces different side effects in an individuals comprehension and speech. These regions have been further studied through experimental researches such as positron emission tomography (PET). Moreover, although there is currently no cure for the disorder, there are treatments and certain guidelines to follow when encountering an aphasic.In physiologic terms, Brocas aphasia and Wernickes aphasia occur in the left hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for controlling the practiced side of the body along with speech and language abilities. Brocas aphasia affects the frontal lobe coterminous to the primary motor cortex, and Wernickes aphasia affects the posterior portion of the first frontal lobe (3). A general distinction made between the two disorders are that Brocas aphasia limits speech, man Wernickes aphasia limits comprehension.Brocas aphasia characterizes patients as people who has loss the production of complete sentence structures in speech and writing. Although the individual may retain the usage of nouns and verbs, the aphasic may have lost all forms of pronouns, articles, and conjunctions (3).