Living with Aphasia

Aphasia is a debilitating disorder, resulting from brain damage, that causes a person to lose the ability to understand or express speech. While aphasia is sometimes permanent, some people can completely recover their language ability spontaneously or with treatment. This monograph consists of four chapters that provide details about the disorder and describe various treatment options. Chapter One reports non-invasive brain stimulations contribution to the study of phonological, syntactic and semantic language processing, as well as the recent interest in connections between language and motor systems. Chapter Two describes linguistically focused intensive group therapy and discusses the specific needs of adolescents and young adults with acquired aphasia. Chapter Three presents a case report of a patient with post-traumatic aphasia. Chapter Four provides details about subcortical aphasia, which is a language disorder caused by injuries in subcortical areas, such as the basal ganglia, white matter tracts, and thalamus, but not by injuries in cortical language areas, such as Wernickes and Brocas areas.