Background

Aphasia is an impairment in language production or comprehension brought about by neurological damage. In Broca’s aphasia, the damage is to Broca’s area of the brain. Broca’s aphasia is characterized by nonfluent speech. However, by and large, speech perception is not affected, and language comprehension is normal. Broca’s aphasics have a halted speech pattern and have difficulty speaking sentences. There is also some evidence that Broca’s aphasics have deficits in understanding complex grammar relative to controls, even though their word comprehension shows no such deficit.

Damage to Wernicke’s area results in deficits in the comprehension of language, a condition called Wernicke’s aphasia. Severe Wernicke’s aphasia may result in a complete absence of understanding language. Speech is, by and large, fluent, but it may appear to not make sense to listeners, as the patients themselves cannot understand what they are saying. This meaningless speech is sometimes called jargon aphasia. Unlike a person with Broca’s aphasia, a personindividuals with Wernicke’s aphasia often shows a blithe indifference to their disorder and seem unaware of their problems.

The next two tabs have videos of Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics, respectively.

Broca's Aphasia

Below are two videos of patient's with Broca's aphasia.

Wernicke's Aphasia

Below are two videos of patient's with Wernicke's aphasia.