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Devising a Method to Study if Wernicke’s Aphasia Patients are Aware That They Do Not Comprehend Language or Speak It Understandably

In 1874, Carl Wernicke described an entirely different form of aphasia in patients with a lesion to the left temporoparietal cortex. Wernicke’s patients, unlike Broca’s, spoke fluently, but the speech/language that came out was often mere gibberish. In addition,

Wernicke’s patients were unable to understand what was said to them or to read. Wernicke’s patients had a third curious issue: They seemed to be surprisingly unaware, indeed oblivious to, their language problems and were not upset by their difficulties

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Articles of Interest

Wernicke's Works on Aphasia: A Sourcebook and Review

This is a most welcome book and the author is to be commended on a useful collection of translations of Wernicke's major works. Preceding the translations that comprise more than two thirds of the volume, there is a biographical sketch of Wernicke and a discussion of his contributions to aphasia. The volume is well produced and is illustrated with many of Wernicke's own diagrams.

Wordy Wernicke's

If a stroke or other brain injury damages Broca’s area but leaves Wernicke’s area intact, you get language which is meaningful, but not very structured or fluid. You sound like a caveman: “Want food!” If it damages Wernicke’s area but leaves Broca’s area intact, you get speech which has normal structure and flow, but is meaningless.

Resources

3 Types of Aphasia That May Result From Stroke

The speech of Wernicke's aphasia, however, is impossible to understand. Stroke survivors experiencing Wernicke's aphasia create sentences with words arranged in what sounds like a random fashion. This type of language pattern is sometimes referred to as logorrhea.

National Aphasia Association

In Wernicke’s aphasia, the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words and sentences is impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not very affected. Therefore Wernicke’s aphasia is also referred to as ‘fluent aphasia’ or ‘receptive aphasia’.

StatPearls

Wernicke aphasia is characterized by impaired language comprehension. Despite this impaired comprehension, speech may have a normal rate, rhythm, and grammar. The most common cause of Wernicke’s aphasia is an ischemic stroke affecting the posterior temporal lobe of the dominant hemisphere.