Aphasia Syndromes: Introduction and Value in Clinical Practice

Neurologic damage affecting the left cerebral hemisphere leads to impairments in comprehension and expression of language in the verbal modality (aphasia) and in the written modality (dyslexia and dysgraphia). Impairment patterns take various forms, differing in the fluency/nonfluency of verbal output and integrity of auditory comprehension, repetition, and word retrieval abilities. The divergent classifications of aphasia allow reflection on neural and psychological correlates of specific aspects of language processing in verbal and written modalities. Neurologic damage affecting the right cerebral hemisphere can lead to changes in social and prosodic communication, speaking to the role of the right hemisphere in language processing. Patterns of language breakdown following neurologic injury have implications for assessment and intervention for affected individuals. Whereas perspectives vary on interpretation of the language breakdown across disciplines, this volume’s purpose is to facilitate interactions across disciplines to improve the lives of those with aphasia and related communication disorders.