Controversy over Wernicke's Aphasia.

[monkeywantsabanana]

Today, I went to the the Pathway Education lecture today and the second speaker, Ross ? emphasised that for Wernicke's aphasia, COMPREHENSION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE IS NOT IMPAIRED.

However, in the Oxford Textbook, it states that for Wernicke's aphasia: "difficulty understanding both written and spoken language."


Does anyone have a definite answer?

[shinny]

From what I've learnt, written is impaired as well. A quick Google search seems to confirm this too.

[iNerd]

Ah yeah I picked this up too - I'm going to ask my Psych teacher on Monday.

It was a good lecture yeah? Seriously at awe at the amount of females though. Ratio 2:1

[monkeywantsabanana]

yea, it was pretty good

And THANKS SHINNY.

[iNerd]

Shinny, mind posting your source?

[shinny]

Was just skimming through the page on this search. One of the results states that 'receptive aphasia can sometimes perceive written language via the visual tracts without difficulty but has marked difficulty in receiving the correct auditory message'. I guess like most things neurological, there's no definitive pattern and variations will occur.

[iNerd]

Well most of the internet does say what you say but I'd be hesitant in going against Ross Down.

If you look at the definition provided by the book:

Wernicke’s aphasia is a type of aphasia in which a person has considerable difficulty comprehending speech and speaking in a meaningful way.

It does not specify having difficulty comprehending speech AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

Once again, I'll be asking my teacher.

[shinny]

Well most of the internet does say what you say but I'd be hesitant in going against Ross Down.

If you look at the definition provided by the book:

Wernicke’s aphasia is a type of aphasia in which a person has considerable difficulty comprehending speech and speaking in a meaningful way.

It does not specify having difficulty comprehending speech AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE.

Once again, I'll be asking my teacher.

Possible reason is because the word aphasia would inherently refer only to spoken language anyway. However, referring to lesions in Wernicke's area in general, as far as I'm aware, they'd produce both aphasia and alexia (inability to read) in most cases. Still a good idea to confirm with your teacher what they think is right though so that you don't get marked wrongly in a SAC.

[totaled]

once again, i'd recommend not going to online sites to look for answers to these sorts of questions, perhaps check past vcaa exams (in particular the MC q, there is bound to be a q that illustrates this understanding) or the grivas textbook

[mount franklin]

as far as our book stated, ( macmillan), it states nothing about difficulty to write, however, on the other hand, our book was written by the person who conducted the lecture yesterday!

[Glockmeister]

I'm running off somewhere, but let me have a look later on tonight.

[iNerd]

I'm running off somewhere, but let me have a look later on tonight.

Found out? My teacher is 'looking into it.'

[Camo]

As far as my understanding is Werknickes aphasia covers both understanding of written and verbal while Brocas aphasia covers only speech because it is an action or should it include writing a response as well or does that have to do more with the primary motor cortex?

[Russ]

To be honest, this looks like something that's not well understood. I had a quick search and the literature seems to suggest it's predominantly verbal but also affects written expression and interpretation. Presumably it depends on what specifically is wrong with the area.

Wernicke’s aphasia patients may not fully discriminate the acoustic information contained in speech...In Wernicke-type aphasia obviously the language defect is situated at the level of meaningful words (nouns). Phoneme and word
selection are deficient, but language syntax (contiguity: sequencing elements) is well preserved and even overused paragrammatism in Wernicke’s aphasia)...Patients have problems in...associating the words with specific meanings

That states it's a verbal deficiency but also seems to suggest it will also impact on all forms of language use.

Also, from the research I did, the worst joke/witty comment I've ever seen in a journal article

Once somebody asked Luria: ‘‘Why you do not ever refer to transcortical sensory aphasia? Luria simply answered, ‘‘because I never have seen a case of transcortical sensory aphasia’’

[Glockmeister]

I'm running off somewhere, but let me have a look later on tonight.

Found out? My teacher is 'looking into it.'

Yeah, I've had a read of my textbook, but yes I would say that damage to the Wernicke's ares would affect written comprehension as well. I'll quote some lines from my textbook.

"Gorgan's strange speech was mirrored in his writing and his ability to play music. When Gardner offered him a pencipl, he sponstaenously took it and wrote "Phillip Gorgan. This is a very good beautifyl [sic] day is a good day when the wether [sic] has been for a very long time..." (Gardner, 1974, p. 71)... Pieces of the appropriate song were intermixed with music gibberish." (Bear, Connors & Paradiso, 2007, p. 624)

"Wernicke's area... specialized for storing memories of the sounds that make up words... high-order area for sound recognition." (Bear, Connors & Paradiso, 2007, p. 624)

References
Bear, M.F., Connors, B.W., & Paradiso, M.A, (2007) Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (3rd Ed). Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins