This past week we were introduced to two different auditory aphasias; Broca’s Aphasia, and Wernicke’s Aphasia. I am very interested in what psychology has discerned from these impairments and therefore have decided to expand on the material we discussed in class. To begin with let’s look at the differences between these two aphasias.

Broca’s Aphasia also known as “Expressive aphasia or agrammatical aphasia, is caused by damage to or developmental issues in anterior regions of the brain, including (but not limited to) the left inferior frontal region known as Broca’s area” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broca%27s_aphasia). Broca’s area is one of the main language areas in the cerebral cortex because it controls the motor aspects of speech. Therefore, people with Broca’s aphasia can usually understand what words mean, but they have trouble performing the motor or output aspects of speech (http://www.sci.uidaho.edu/med532/Broca.htm).  In the example presented in class from a web-clip, a man was asked about his leg which had been bothering him. The man (suffering from Broca’s aphasia) could not formulate any type of sentence to respond to the question. He instead responded, “leg…..no good……….rest……….home……….doctor.” This is a perfect way to understand the importance of this area of the cerebral cortex. It demonstrates that the region is only responsible for the production of “grammatical structure,” it is not responsible for the interpretation of “grammatical structure.” The man understood the questions being presented to him, the aphasia however impaired his ability to express a meaningful and collected response. It is impressive how psychologists are able to use disorders or brain impairments in order to gain further understanding of how certain regions of the brain contribute to the body’s functions. By simply observing the behavior of patients with this aphasia it is easily discerned that Broca’s area is only responsible for output of language, not the input or encoding.

Wernicke’s aphasia also known as “receptive aphasia, or sensory aphasia, is often (but not always) caused by neurological damage to Wernicke’s area in the brain (Brodman area 22, in the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere)” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptive_aphasia). This area of the cortex is responsible for naming objects and comprehending language. People who suffer from Wernicke’s aphasia are able to speak, yet their language context is incorrect and they often speak in what is called “word salad” (a random assortment of words into meaningless speach). The example we were presented in class is from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVhYN7NTIKU and is very interesting to observe (feel free to use this link!). Once again, psychologists have been able to use observable symptoms to draw conclusions about the division between structures responsible for comprehension of language and those responsible for production. To me the existance of such is simply amazing! If you have any further questions about these two aphasias, leave a comment and I will be glad to look up the answers for you!