Types of Aphasia

Type

Location of Causative Lesion*

Common Causes

Speech Pattern

Anomic

Lesion (usually small) anywhere in the left-hemisphere language areas

Infarction

Hemorrhage

Trauma

Tumor

Anomia (inability to name objects) in oral language (leading to empty, circumlocutory, paraphasic speech†) and in written language, fluent speech, good auditory and reading comprehension, normal repetition

Broca (nonfluent, expressive, motor)

Large lesion in the left frontal or frontoparietal area, including the Broca area

Infarction

Hemorrhage

Trauma

Tumor

Anomia in oral and written language, nonfluent speech (with slow, effortful production, short phrase length, impaired prosody, and reduced use of prepositions and conjunctions), good comprehension, impaired repetition, impaired writing (nonfluent agraphia)

Conduction

Subcortical lesion in the left hemisphere, often under the superior temporal gyrus or under the inferior parietal lobe

Infarction

Hemorrhage

Tumor

Anomia (with prominent paraphasias†), otherwise fluent speech, good comprehension, impaired repetition (with frequent paraphasias), good reading comprehension

Writing unaffected

Global

Large lesion in the left frontotemporoparietal area, including the Broca and Wernicke areas

Infarction

Hemorrhage

Trauma

Tumor

Severe anomia in oral and written language, nonfluent speech (often with sparse output), poor comprehension, impaired repetition, alexia, agraphia

Transcortical motor

Lesion in the left frontal area, excluding the Broca and Wernicke areas

Infarction

Encephalitis

Hemorrhage

Trauma

Tumor

Similar to Broca aphasia except with normal repetition

Articulation often unaffected

Transcortical sensory

Lesion in the left temporoparietal area, excluding the Broca and Wernicke areas

Infarction

Encephalitis

Hemorrhage

Trauma

Tumor

Similar to Wernicke aphasia, except with normal repetition

Wernicke (fluent, receptive, sensory)

Large lesion in the left temporoparietal area, including the Wernicke area

Infarction

Tumor

Anomia in oral and written language, fluent speech (with paraphasias†, a variety of grammatical forms, but often conveying little meaning), poor auditory and written comprehension, impaired repetition, errors in reading (alexia), fluent agraphia

* Causative lesion is in the language-dominant (usually left) hemisphere.

† Paraphasic speech (paraphasia) is use of wrong or mispronounced words or words in nonsensical combinations.

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