Broca's Aphasia Case Study

Broca’s Aphasia. Due to John presenting with severe speech difficulties and intact auditory comprehension, a diagnosis of Broca’s Aphasia could be administered. The motor area for spoken language, known as the Brodmann area 44 and 45, is situated in the left inferior frontal gyrus (Goodglass and Kaplan (2001). Damage affecting this Broca’s area may cause a ‘non fluent’ aphasia, in which comprehension remains relatively intact, however language production is impaired (McCaffrey, 2005). The most well known cause of Broca’s aphasia is a Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA) stroke in the left frontal lobe. John is cognitively aware of what he wants to say, however he is unable find the words he needs to convey his message. Primary signs of the disorder

Two… ah doctors…, and ah… thirty minutes… and yes… ah hospital. And, er Wednesday… nine o’clock. And er Thursday, ten o’clock… doctors” (Goodglass, 1976). This speech pattern is effortful with pauses, an absence of functional words, false starts with only a few phrases are repeated smoothly. Despite the difficulty following complex grammatical statements, the patient retains their functional comprehension. Language function in Broca’s aphasia has a far higher chance of recovery compared to other aphasia

Damage affecting the interconnection between Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, as well as the overlying supramarginal gyrus has been found to result in conduction aphasia. A lesion to the left superior temporal area is among the most common causes of this language disorder. Similar to Wernicke’s aphasia, an individual with conduction aphasia will demonstrate significant difficulty with repetition, however their ability to comprehend language remains relatively well preserved. In conduction aphasia, spontaneous speech is remains fluent and is accompanied with a considerable word finding difficulty. According to Bhatnager, and Andy (1995), conduction aphasia occurs in fewer than 10% of aphasia cases and whilst there tends to be no associated neurological problem, hemiparesis can occur in rare cases, with some patients developing a limited right hemianasthesia, or visual field