Languages I / Language in the Brain
Practice question · Fill in the blanks

Complete the account of the aphasias.

Damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus produces ______ aphasia, whose speech is halting and ______. Damage further back in the temporal lobe produces ______ aphasia, whose speech is fluent but empty and whose ______ is poor.

Word bank: Broca's · agrammatic · Wernicke's · comprehension · conduction · repetition

Hints
  1. The frontal case is the halting one.
  2. The posterior case is fluent, and what fails is understanding.
Show the answer

Damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus produces Broca's aphasia, whose speech is halting and agrammatic. Damage further back in the temporal lobe produces Wernicke's aphasia, whose speech is fluent but empty and whose comprehension is poor.

Why

Anchoring each to its lesion site rather than to a function is deliberate. The aphasias are named after where the damage is, and treating the names as labels for mental modules is exactly the error the last section of the lesson warns about.

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