About aphasia, the loss of communication
Language allows us to distinguish, use it constantly, and communicate with each other what we feel, think, and need.
Losing the ability to communicate can be devastating to a person, and there is concern that this can happen with a condition called aphasia. Aphasia occurs when a part of the brain that helps process language is damaged.
The most common causes of aphasia are.
Strokes are the most common cause of aphasia, but head trauma, infections, brain tumors, and other brain disorders can also cause this condition. It is known that about 180,000 people in the United States develop aphasia each year.
There are many different types of aphasia, which affect language. For example, people with Wernicke's field aphasia can speak, but they produce long sentences that make no sense and may not even notice if they are wrong. And people with Broca's field aphasia understand most language and know what they want to say, but they have trouble saying it out loud.
Other types affect reading, writing and other aspects of language expression and understanding, and these types vary depending on which areas of the brain are damaged.
Language is not located in just one place in the brain.
Language is not just in one place in the brain," says Dr. Leora Charney, an NIH-funded aphasia researcher at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab.
Because the brain can often be trained to use different parts to process language in new ways, "you can think of language as an electrical circuit," Cherney explains. If you break a part of the circuit, you can create a pathway to reconnect it. And so on.
Medical professionals, called speech-language pathologists, can help people with speech, language and related problems retrain their brains, and may even begin treatment immediately after losing their language.
I'm looking forward to working with people with aphasia soon to get the best results," Dr. Charney said.
Some types of treatments for aphasia focus on relearning one word at a time, and Cherney and other researchers are testing another type of speech therapy called script training. This type of language therapy involves repeating sentences or entire conversations over and over again.
We apply this training intensively for many hours a day," Cherney says.
Researchers, including Dr. Cherney, have also tested the use of brain stimulation in addition to speech therapy, using magnets, or electrodes, placed on the head to temporarily alter brain activity.
Even with therapy, some people with aphasia are unable to regain their language. But learning other ways of communicating, such as using gestures and drawing, may keep them from losing touch with people, Charney said.
Technology can also help. "There are a lot of things you can do with just a smart phone that can facilitate communication," Cherney explains. For example, you can take a picture with your phone. That can help people understand the topic you're trying to communicate.
Aphasia does affect language, but Cherney emphasizes that it does not affect intelligence. It may make communication more difficult, but they are still likely to want to "talk.
Script Templates: a Practical Approach to Script Training in Aphasia. Kaye RC, Cherney LR. Top Lang Disord. 2016 Apr-Jun;36(2):136-153. PMID: 27594730 .
Summary.
Just because a person has difficulty with some of the language functions does not negate their intelligence or personality, but just because they have difficulty communicating, it can cause people to look at the person with the disorder in that way. I hope that this article will help you understand aphasia a little better, so that you can be positive and communicate without prejudice even if you or someone else has aphasia.
There are tools that can come in handy in these situations, and I hope we can make good use of them.
