Master Aphasia Types with Picmonic for Medicine

Broca's aphasia is a form of aphasia caused by lesions in Broca's area (the area supplied by the precentral artery) which lead to a partial loss of speech production with characteristically preserved speech comprehension.

Wernicke's aphasia is a form of aphasia primarily based on a lack of understanding of language (receptive aphasia). It is characterized by fluent speech without meaningful cohesion, often containing neologisms and paraphasias. It is caused by lesions in the area supplied by the posterior temporal artery, resulting in damage to the posterior temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex (Wernicke area) and involving the first temporal gyrus.

Global aphasia is the most severe form of aphasia wherein spoken language and language comprehension is severely impaired. Global aphasia is caused by an extensive lesion involving the dominant hemisphere's motor and sensory language centers. In most cases, it is caused by a complete infarct in the territory supplied by the middle cerebral artery.

A special, rare form of aphasia is referred to as conduction aphasia, the main symptoms of which are disturbed repetition of words and frequent new word formations (phonematic paraphasia). This form of aphasia can be caused by lesions of certain brain structures like the arcuate fasciculus, superior temporal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus.

Anomic aphasia is a form of aphasia often caused by focal lesions in the temporal cortex, temporoparietal cortex, frontal cortex, or diffuse lesions in multiple cortex areas and is the mildest form of aphasia. Symptoms include difficulty finding words with intact language comprehension, difficulty naming objects, and semantic paraphasias.

Transcortical aphasia is a rare form of aphasia with exceptionally good repetition ability and otherwise reduced communication. The cause is an isolation of the speech centers such as Broca's and Wernicke's areas from the rest of the brain through lesions in the surrounding brain areas. There are two types of transcortical aphasias: In transcortical motoric aphasia, repeating words is possible, and language comprehension is intact, but the patient hardly uses any independent phrasing. The location of the lesion is in the precentral brain area. In sensoric transcortical aphasia, repeating words without understanding is possible, with little spontaneous speech and hardly any language comprehension. The location of the lesion is in the postcentral brain area.