Language is what allows us to interact and communicate with others and comprehend what they are saying instead of just sitting there with blank stares. So what happens when there is disconnect between our brains and our ability to communicate? Neurologists have termed the word aphasia which refers to “the collective deficits in language comprehension and production that accompany neurological damage” (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). Aphasia is typically associated with speech problems and is usually caused from brain damage, whether from an accident, drug abuse, or the like. The Mayo Clinic states that aphasia “robs [people] of the ability to communicate” (Mayo Clinic). It can affect anyone and generally a
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Broca’s aphasia was first described by Paul Broca who was a well-known physician in the 19th century. Broca had a patient who, prior to his death, could only say the word “tan.” Broca claimed that the patient had “a brain lesion in the posterior portion of the left inferior frontal gyrus” (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). This lesion is what caused the patient to have such severe language issues. Broca went on to observe and test multiple patients with the same problems during his career and decided that people produce and process speech using their left hemisphere. Generally patients who have Broca’s aphasia have very little ability to produce speech at all and their words sound like “unintelligible mutterings, single syllables or words, short simple phrases…” or they typically produce sentences that lack any meaning at all (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). However, generally those with Broca’s aphasia have the ability to form words and sentences when they are voluntary, just not when it is on command. For instance, a person with Broca’s can say “Stop! Do not do that!” when seeing a dog do something bad but cannot repeat a sentence or answer questions when asked to. Broca’s area is involved with the “planning of speech and the aphasia associated with it makes speech far from fluent” (Seikel, pg. 687).
Broca’s aphasia was first described by Paul Broca who was a well-known physician in the 19th century. Broca had a patient who, prior to his death, could only say the word “tan.” Broca claimed that the patient had “a brain lesion in the posterior portion of the left inferior frontal gyrus” (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). This lesion is what caused the patient to have such severe language issues. Broca went on to observe and test multiple patients with the same problems during his career and decided that people produce and process speech using their left hemisphere. Generally patients who have Broca’s aphasia have very little ability to produce speech at all and their words sound like “unintelligible mutterings, single syllables or words, short simple phrases…” or they typically produce sentences that lack any meaning at all (Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind, pg. 472). However, generally those with Broca’s aphasia have the ability to form words and sentences when they are voluntary, just not when it is on command. For instance, a person with Broca’s can say “Stop! Do not do that!” when seeing a dog do something bad but cannot repeat a sentence or answer questions when asked to. Broca’s area is involved with the “planning of speech and the aphasia associated with it makes speech far from fluent” (Seikel, pg. 687).