"dorflur" for "shoe"
Circumlocution: talking around the target word.E.g. "uhhh its white... its flat... you write on it..." (when referencing paper)
Press of speech: run-on speech.If a clinician asks, "what do you do at a supermarket?" And the individual responds with "Well, the supermarket is a place. It is a place with a lot of food. My favorite food is Italian food. At a supermarket, I buy different kinds of food. There are carts and baskets. Supermarkets have lots of customers, and workers..."
Lack of hemiparesis: typically, no motor deficits are seen with a localized lesion in Wernickes area. Reduced retention span: reduced ability to retain information for extended periods of time. Impairments in reading and writing: impairments can be seen in both reading and writing with differing severity levels.How to differentiate from other types of aphasia
Expressive aphasia (non-fluent Brocas aphasia): individuals have great difficulty forming complete sentences with generally only basic content words (leaving out words like "is" and "the"). Global aphasia: individuals have extreme difficulties with both expressive (producing language) and receptive (understanding language). Anomic aphasia: the biggest hallmark is ones poor word-finding abilities; ones speech is fluent and appropriate, but full of circumlocutions (evident in both writing and speech). Conduction aphasia: individuals can comprehend what is being said and are fluent in spontaneous speech, but they cannot repeat what is being said to them. Causes
The most common cause of Wernickes aphasia is stroke. Strokes may occur when blood flow to the brain is completely interrupted or severely reduced.
This has a direct effect on the amount of oxygen and nutrients being able to supply the brain, which causes brain cells to die within minutes. "The middle cerebral arteries supply blood to the cortical areas involved in speech, language and swallowing. The left middle cerebral artery provides Brocas area, Wernickes area, Heschls gyrus, and the angular gyrus with blood". Therefore, in patients with Wernickes aphasia, there is typically an occlusion to the left middle cerebral artery.As a result of the occlusion in the left middle cerebral artery, Wernickes aphasia is most commonly caused by a lesion in the posterior superior temporal gyrus (Wernickes area). This area is posterior to the primary auditory cortex (PAC) which is responsible for decoding individual speech sounds. Wernickes primary responsibility is to assign meaning to these speech sounds. The extent of the lesion will determine the severity of the patients deficits related to language. Damage to the surrounding areas (perisylvian region) may also result in Wernickes aphasia symptoms due to variation in individual neuroanatomical structure and any co-occurring damage in adjacent areas of the brain. Diagnosis
Aphasia is usually first recognized by the physician who treats the person for his or her brain injury. Most individuals will undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scan to confirm the presence of a brain injury and to identify its precise location.