[ExI] Wernicke's aphasia

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Mon, 12/7/09, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

> It is worth noticing that people with Wernicke's usually
> have unimpaired cognition. They might be unable to speak and
> understand speech, but they can still think and plan. 

Actually they do speak, and from what I understand some of them speak very well. They simply don't make any sense, even to themselves.

Wernicke's aphasia falls under the category of receptive aphasias as contrasted with expressive aphasias. Generally lesions in Broca's area cause the expressive sort and lesions in Wernicke's area cause the receptive sort. 

Simply stated, receptive aphasiasiacs don't know what they mean but still have plenty to say about it. Expressive aphasiasiacs know what they mean but cannot say anything about it. (At least that's what I think I mean to say about it.)

-gts