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Aphasia: causes, symptoms and treatment

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

Broca’s aphasia, expressive or expression, is a neurological disorder that hinders reading, writing, and language. It affects part of the brain called Broca’s area, which is responsible for this function and is found in the left hemisphere. This alteration can appear suddenly or develop little by little, more common in adults who have suffered a brain injury. The severity of the aphasia will depend on the area of ​​the brain affected and its extent. At FastlyHealwe explain the causes, symptoms and treatment of aphasia.

Causes of Broca’s aphasia

Aphasia is caused by damage to the brain related to language, one of the reasons that help it occur is having had a stroke since the blood does not circulate correctly to the brain, causing the cells to die. But there are other causes why aphasia can occur:

  • Brain tumors.
  • Viral or bacterial infections such as meningitis or encephalitis.
  • Severe blows to the head.

Types of aphasia

Four types of aphasia are related to the area of ​​the brain and knowledge that has been affected:

  • Receptive aphasia: the patient can read but has difficulty understanding what he hears or reads.
  • Expressive aphasia: the person with this type of aphasia knows what he wants to say but finds it difficult to express it.
  • Global aphasia: refers to extensive damage in the areas of the brain that deal with language and generally cannot communicate or understand what others are saying.
  • Anomic aphasia: people who develop this aphasia find it challenging to use the correct words to describe objects.

Symptoms of expression aphasia

Aphasia refers to the loss or difficulty in speech; in this sense, its main symptom will be this. However, other signs will indicate that a person suffers from this disorder and are related to the area of ​​the brain that is affected:

Broca’s area is located in the central lobe of the brain and is responsible for the production of speech, understanding, language, and body movements. When it is affected, the symptoms are:

  • Difficulty constructing sentences with a correct grammatical structure in the mother tongue.
  • Construction of simple sentences to communicate, which sometimes do not make sense.
  • They go to great lengths to find the right word.
  • Weakness and paralysis in the right arm or leg.

Wernicke’s area is located in the cerebral cortex, and its function is the understanding of language and is complemented by Broca’s area. When this area is affected the symptoms are:

  • Difficulty understanding simple words.
  • Modification of the phonetics of words.
  • Use of words that do not exist.

When the lesion is in the Brodman area, it mainly affects the temporal lobe, and the symptoms that occur are:

  • Trouble finding the right words.
  • There are cuts in the flow of conversations.
  • This difficulty also manifests itself at the time of writing.

When the temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes are affected, this is when we refer to global aphasia, which is considered the most serious. In this case, the symptoms are:

  • Stereotypes or repetitive movements, voices, or postures.
  • The ability to speak is less.
  • It affects all areas of language, such as articulation, phonetics, syntax, and comprehension.

neurologist will be the doctor in charge of diagnosing this disorder and will ask some questions to assess the communication skills of the affected person. In case of finding a disability, it will be advisable to go to a speech therapist.

Broca’s aphasia treatment

The purpose of the treatment will be to improve communication skills. For this, individual therapy should be carried out with a speech therapist, which will generally be divided into three phases. First, the therapist will help restore comprehension and speech skills by repeating words, and the patient will learn other forms of communication.

In the second phase of treatment, exercises will be done for the grammatical construction of sentences. In the third, all communication skills will be applied in the person’s day-to-day life with aphasia.

Some recommendations

Family support will be necessary in the process of a person with aphasia, so we give you some recommendations to facilitate this phase:

  • Use short and simple sentences.
  • Avoid making corrections.
  • Repeat words or clarify the meaning of keywords in the conversation.
  • Encourage other types of communication such as pictures, signs, or gestures.
  • Include them in discussions.
  • Give them time to talk.
  • Avoid distractions.
  • Avoid talking to them like they are children.

Forecast

The prognosis of aphasia is difficult to determine since everything will depend on the degree of cervical damage. Another factor that affects speedy recovery is age; the younger the recovery will be easier. Likewise, the location of the lesion is decisive because language deficiencies tend to be more recoverable than skills that deserve some expression.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Aphasia: causes, symptoms, and treatment , we recommend that you enter our Brain and Nerves category .

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