Aphasia—Loss of Language

Aphasia is the loss of language due to damage to part or parts of the brain that are responsible for language. Damage may be brought about by head injuries, strokes, tumors, infection, or dementia.

Damage to the left or right temporal lobe (though normally in the left) results in Wernicke's Aphasia (fluent aphasia). A person with Wernicke's Aphasia will speak in long sentences that are hard for others to understand (it is also hard for such a person to understand others). They may add unnecessary or even invented words to their speech. Because the left temporal lobe is not close to any motor movement areas of the brain, Wernicke's Aphasia is not usually accompanied by weakness or paralysis of the body.


Broca's Aphasia, a type of non-fluent aphasia, occurs with damage to the frontal lobe. A person with Broca's Aphasia speaks in short, concise sentences that eliminate small words like "is" or "the." Though strained to speak, an affected person has no comprehension problem when listening to others. Broca's Aphasia is frequently accompanied by right-side weakness or paralysis, since the frontal lobe also controls motor movement.

Global Aphasia (non-fluent) is a result of damage in extensive areas of the brain's language areas, resulting in limited speech and comprehension abilities and extreme difficulties with communication.

Below are some examples of sentences that may be spoken by persons with aphasia. Remember, while Wernicke's is characterised by long, drawn-out speech with superfluous or made-up words, Broca's speech is identified by its brevity.

Wernicke's:

"You know that smoodle pinkered and that I want to get him round and take care of him like you want before.”

Broca's:

"Walk dog.” (meaning "I will take the dog for a walk.")
"Book book two table." (meaning "There are two books on the table.")

[Source for all above information: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders' website, at this url: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/aphasia.asp]

As you can see, not every aspect of language is controled by one single area of the brain, in fact different aspects of language are controlled by parts of the brain that are separated from one another. I believe this to be an advantageous development, since in the event of a head injury causing a form of aphasia the chance of losing all language capabilities whatsoever is lessened. That is my best guess, not actually being a neurologist myself.

After reading about this I would also be interested to know 1. How do the mechanics of the brain work in regards to language and communication, and 2. How and to what effect do the language-areas of the brain correspond with motor skills? If you are reading this and you know anything about this, please feel free to share your knowledge.