Caity's Draft: Adding to the Wernicke's Aphasia section

Wernicke’s Aphasia, considered a fluent aphasia, can be the result of trauma to the temporal region of the brain, specifically to Wernicke’s area (NIDCD). Trauma can be the result from an area of problems, however it is most commonly seen as a result of stroke. Patients who have been diagnosed with Wernicke’s aphasia have fluent speech, but it’s the meaning of their utterances that are the most notably affected, (ASHA) While their sentence structure remains, the words patients use often are nonsense,(ASHA).

Comprehension is severely affected in patients with Wernicke’s aphasia. Wernicke’s area has been thought to be the center of language processing, specifically processing of meaning, (DeWitt). While patients are still left with some comprehension, they cannot repeat a sentence spoken to them or participate in an action requested from another speaker, (Ellis). A case study done by Ellis et al discus a patient who underwent several types of testing, one of which was a word-picture test. The conclusion of the test showed, that while the patient understood what the image was, he had trouble retrieving the word and understanding the instructions, (Ellis)

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KENYA'S EDITS FOR CAITY: (I PREFER TO USE ALL CAPS IN EDITING; I AM NOT YELLING.)

Wernicke’s Aphasia, considered [FLUENT APHASIA], [IS OFTEN] the result of trauma to the temporal region of the brain, specifically damage to Wernicke’s area (NIDCD). Trauma can be the result from an array of problems, however it is most commonly seen as a result of stroke (ASHA). Patients who have been diagnosed with Wernicke’s aphasia have fluent speech, but it is the meaning of their utterances that are most notably affected, (ASHA) While their sentence structure remains, the words patients use are often nonsensical (ASHA).

Comprehension is severely affected in patients with Wernicke’s aphasia. Wernicke’s area has been thought to be the center of language processing, specifically processing of meaning (DeWitt). While patients are still left with some comprehension, they are not able to repeat a sentence spoken to them or participate in an action requested by another speaker, (Ellis). A case study done by Ellis et al discussed a patient who underwent several types of testing, one of which was a word-picture test. The conclusion of the test showed that while the patient understood what the image was, he had trouble retrieving the word and understanding the instructions, (Ellis) This case study suggests that it is language comprehension that is affected in Wernicke's aphasia and not a drop in intelligence.

NOTES:

- YOU HAD SOME RANDOM COMMAS BEFORE CITATIONS. I TOOK THEM OUT.

-I PUT SOME CHANGES IN BRACKETS FOR YOUR RECONSIDERATION. ONCE YOU SEE THE CHANGES YOU CAN REMOVE THEM.

-YOUR SENTENCES SEEM PRETTY SHORT AND CHOPPY. THESE ARE NOT TWO COMPLETE PARAGRAPHS. THEY ARE A LITTLE TOO SHORT. WERE YOU TRYING TO COME UP WITH 2 PARAGRAPHS? I THINK DR. BUNGER WILL WANT MORE THAN THIS.

-GOOD SOURCES

-GOOD USE OF EVERYDAY LANGUAGE. I UNDERSTAND!

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/aphasia http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Aphasia/Common-Classifications-of-Aphasia/ Wernlcke’s aphasia and normal languagp processing: A case study in cognitive neuropsychology* ANDREW W. ELLIS DIANE MILLER GILLIAN SIN University of Lancaster Wernicke’s Area Revisited: Parallel Streams and Word Processing Iain DeWitt1 and Josef P. Rauschecker2

Maggie's Draft

To better understand what aphasia is and how it affects both mental and physical aspects of speech, it is important to understand the history first. By knowing more about the history of a disorder, the better chance you have at ruling out potential misnomers of the disorder and possibly discovering new ways of thinking about treatment options (Tesak & Code, 2012). Although the cause for most aphasia's are known, the best way to recover is still unknown. Many ancient cultures believed that the heart was where a person's soul was housed, therefore any issues with speech were issues with the soul. Other cultures believed in ventricle theory, where the brain was made up of four ventricles, each containing a different part of the self, and that speechlessness had to do a sensorimotor injury that also affected the ventricles (Tesak & Code, 2012). In modern times, however, treatment and rehabilitation are the only ways currently to help those with aphasia, but by knowing the history, knowing what has been tried, and what has been tested can help us in the future to search for new ways to help treat aphasia.

Aphasia was non medically described from texts such as the Bible, and the writings of Homer, however not much has been researched regarding non medical texts. Medically however, speechlessness was described as an incorrect prognosis and did not assume that there were underlying language complications (Eling &Whitaker, 2010). The earliest recorded medical cases of aphasia were made back in the middle ages, were it was thought to be an imbalance of bodily fluids in the brain that caused in inability to speak one's mind (Tesak & Code, 2012). The first medical documents dating back into the late 19th century contain early descriptions of aphasia. Broca and his colleagues were some of the first to write about aphasia, but Wernicke was the first credited to have written extensively about aphasia being a disorder that contained comprehension difficulties (Boller, 1977). Despite claims of who reported on aphasia first, it was F. J. Gall that gave the first full description of aphasia after studying wounds to the brain, as well as his observation of speech difficulties resulting from vascular lesion (Riese, 1947).

References:

Boller, F. (1977). Johann Baptist Schmidt: a pioneer in the history of aphasia. Archives of Neurology, 34(5), 306-307. 

Eling, P., & Whitaker, H. (2010). History of aphasia: from brain to language. Handbook of Clinical Neurology History of Neurology, 95, 3rd ser., 571-582. 

Riese, W. (1947). The early history of aphasia. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 322-334.

Tesak, J., & Code, C. (2012). Milestones in the history of aphasia: theories and protagonists. Hove: Psychology.