after bruce willis revealed his
diagnosis of aphasia in 2022 many people
might have been left wondering just what
is it who's at risk of getting it and
what might it mean for a patient's
future keep watching to find out more
it's easy to see how a disorder like
aphasia can be extremely frustrating to
those who have it as well as those
around them this is because people with
aphasia understand what they mean within
their own minds but can't communicate it
properly if you've ever struggled to
find the right word to finish a sentence
then you can glean what it feels like to
have broca's aphasia the non-fluent
variant of the disorder and if you've
ever rambled while wrestling to get your
point across and had no one understand
you then you'll know what it means to
have wernicke's aphasia which is the
fluent kind and then
these people tell me that i'm doing with
and soon they're gonna move so then i
lived in a new period
aphasia wasn't properly understood until
recently especially after the advent of
ct and mri medical imaging technology in
the 1970s after all if a doctor can't
properly communicate with a patient it's
hard to diagnose them patients with
aphasia typically rely on family members
and loved ones to communicate on their
behalf
it was only due to post-mortem studies
of patients in the 19th century that
researchers began to have an idea of
aphasia's causes in 1861 french
researcher paul broca first identified
the connection between specific local
brain damage and an inability to
properly process language
as you can imagine aphasia is a
devastating diagnosis to receive it's
often made worse by the loss of the
patient's ability to hold down a job
relationships strained to the breaking
point due to communication problems and
the onset of subsequent diagnosis such
as clinical depression aphasia can
result from any number of causes but
particularly strokes as these cause
blood to stop flowing throughout the
brain
indeed approximately 25 to 40 percent of
stroke survivors develop aphasia other
causes include tumors infections
neurological disorders such as
alzheimer's and physical injury no
matter the cause if language processing
centers like broca's area or wernicke's
area are affected then aphasia of any
type and severity may develop
it's important to remember that there
isn't only one kind of aphasia but many
different types resulting from similar
causes it all depends on case-by-case
anatomical details because of the
influence of age-related neurological
disorders on the prevalence of aphasia
aphasia is usually more common in older
people besides that there's no one group
of people more susceptible to the
development of aphasia than another at
present aphasia is more common in the us
than parkinson's disease cerebral palsy
or muscular dystrophy nearly 2 million
people suffer from aphasia in fact and
every year about 180 000 more people
receive the diagnosis it's when the
problem persists if it's interfering
with our functioning that's when you
really need to seek out again
understanding aphasia requires an
understanding of the brain's different
centers or loci each of which process a
different action even though the right
hemisphere of the brain is responsible
for the left side of the body and vice
versa for language processing the
division of responsibility between haves
isn't strictly separate in right-handed
people about 90 percent of the language
loop's functionality is located in the
left hemisphere in left-handed people
responsibility is more shared between
hemispheres with 70 percent of the
language loop being localized in the
left hemisphere these are the kinds of
discoveries that went in hand-in-hand
with research into aphasia particularly
thanks to french neuroscientist paul
broca in 1861 and then german
neuroscientist carl bernicki about a
decade later broca discovered the damage
to the left posterior frontal lobe of
the brain led to difficulties with
language output wernicke discovered that
damage to the left posterior temporal
lobe led to problems with language input
together these areas form the ends of
the brain's language loop which is
connected by a bundle of nerves called
the arcuate fasciculus the worst case
diagnosis of aphasia involved the
complete obliteration of this language
loop and a total inability to speak at
all
for a long time aphasia remained an
utter mystery and completely
misdiagnosed
nowadays doctors use an array of testing
methods and medical imaging technology
to check for aphasia this allows for a
full and complete portrait of the human
brain and any potential injuries without
having to slice open someone's skull if
a patient exhibits potential symptoms of
aphasia doctors turn to aphasia
assessments as a first line of defense
these formal clinically designed tools
check things like speech patterns rhythm
and intonation naming of objects
repetition language comprehension
reading and writing and so on the
mississippi aphasia screening test for
instance is a quick 5 to 15 minute oral
exam the boston diagnostic aphasia
evaluation 3rd edition meanwhile is a
more thorough and involved assessment of
a person's language functions on the
high-tech side of diagnosis doctors have
ct scans mris and pet scans
ct scans use x-rays to take detailed
pictures of bone muscle tissue and
organs mris produce detailed pictures
using radio waves and magnets while pet
scans produce 3d images of metabolic
flow using a radioactive drug ingested
by patients
sometimes aphasia is a temporary
condition that plays out as the body
heals from an injury if symptoms persist
for more than two or three months though
especially after a stroke a complete
recovery is unlikely however
speech-language therapy can help a
person with aphasia learn about their
condition and live a full life such
therapy can be one-on-one or group-based
and involve pictures gestures teaching
communication techniques the use of
electronic devices and more
speech-generating apps are also
available to aid in day-to-day
conversation besides such direct therapy
it's critical for people with aphasia to
feel connected to others through support
groups and social clubs because support
from loved ones is an essential part of
the recovery process much of the
treatment for the disorder revolves
around teaching them how to cope too
simple advice like simplifying language
or not correcting the speech of someone
who has aphasia can go a long way to
making home life as natural and happy as
possible thanks to cutting-edge therapy
techniques and a better understanding of
the disorder it appears that those with
aphasia face a brighter future than ever
before
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