Receptive aphasia
| Receptive aphasia | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Broca's area and Wernicke's area | |
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | psychiatry |
| ICD-10 | F80.2 |
| ICD-9-CM | 784.3 |
| MeSH | D001041 |
Receptive aphasia, also known as Wernicke's aphasia, fluent aphasia, or sensory aphasia, is a type of aphasia in which an individual is unable to understand language in its written or spoken form. Even though they can speak using grammar, syntax, rate, and intonation, they typically have difficulty expressing themselves meaningfully through speech. Receptive aphasia was named after Carl Wernicke who recognized this condition. People with receptive aphasia are typically unaware of how they are speaking and do not realize their speech may lack meaning. This is due to poor comprehension skills and the inability to understand their own speech because of overall self-monitoring deficits. They typically remain unaware of even their most profound language deficits. When experienced with Broca's aphasia, the patient displays global aphasia.
Like many acquired language disorders, receptive aphasia can be experienced in many different ways and to many different degrees. While the typical case shows severely disturbed language comprehension, many individuals are still able to maintain conversations. Many may only experience difficulties with things such as accents and fast speech with the occasional speech error and can often carry out simple commands. Not all individuals show a complete loss of language comprehension. A common symptom of receptive aphasia is misinterpreting the meaning of words, gestures, pictures. For example, a patient with receptive aphasia may take the expression "it's raining cats and dogs" literally instead of figuratively. What is described here is what is referred to as a "textbook" example with the typical, fully expressed symptoms. Many diagnosed with Wernicke's aphasia have effortless speech and have difficulty with repetition in words and sentences. A person with Wernicke's aphasia may speak over others during conversation, which is "press of speech", and may not be aware that their message does not have a full meaning.
Receptive aphasia results from damage to Wernicke's area located posterior to the lateral sulcus in the left hemisphere of the brain. This area is adjacent to the auditory cortex. The damage is most often the result of a stroke, although damage to Wernicke's area through blunt force trauma from accidents is another possible cause. While the onset of the disorder is typically very sudden, it is possible for the symptoms to begin gradually, with nonsensical utterances and word-finding issues appearing in the individual's speech.
With receptive aphasia an individual primarily loses their ability to comprehend language. This typically takes the form of both an inability to understand speech as well as written text. They also lose the ability to understand their own spoken language. This inability to understand language is usually accompanied with symptoms of anosognosia: the individual is unaware of the disorder. When attempting to communicate with others they often rely on situational cues in order to maintain the conversation. Individuals typically retain almost all of their cognitive abilities outside of those related to understanding language. Receptive aphasia, unlike expressive aphasia often occurs without any motor deficits.
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