Aphasia is a condition, in which, those parts of the brain, that take care of a person’s language skills, are damaged. As a result, the person loses the ability to understand and use language to communicate with others. There are certain types of this brain disorder, out of which, expressive aphasia has been explained in the following HealthHearty article.
Expressive aphasia is a type of brain disorder, wherein, a person loses the ability to communicate with others. It occurs when the anterior portion of the brain is either damaged or not fully developed.
This, in clinical neuropsychology, is known as Broca’s aphasia, while in cognitive neuropsychology, it is termed as agrammatic aphasia. This disorder is associated with lack of development of the Broca’s area of the brain, that refers to the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus of the brain. Simultaneously, anterior region of the brain could be damaged or remains underdeveloped. A person suffering from expressive aphasia is incapable of speaking and writing, despite understanding and perceiving everything that goes around his surroundings.
Under such conditions the person faces difficulty in initiating speech. His speech becomes labored with lack of fluency. He faces the same problem while writing. His language is reduced to distortion and lacks properly constructed sentences. It’s very difficult to make out what he speaks, as his speech and writing becomes devoid of stress, intonation, and inflections. To sum up, these people know what they want to say but cannot communicate.
Causes
This condition is a side effect of a massive stroke in the brain, caused due to sudden deficit of oxygen in the brain. The medical terminology for this kind of stroke is embolism or thrombosis. A study has shown that 35% of people have developed aphasia as a result of a stroke. Chances of getting expressive aphasia are 100%, when the stroke has hit Broca’s area. The lesion in the brain can be widespread.
It is also caused by many other disorders, like, brain tumor, extradural hematoma, brain trauma, cerebral attack, and cerebral hemorrhage. In rare cases, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and other forms of neurological disorder result in this kind of aphasia. A person suffering from this brain disorder undergoes a lot of mental stress and depression.
Treatment
A person suffering from this disorder undergoes this therapy. This involves improving the power of self expression through expressive exercises. Playing word games, conversational games, picture games in a specific way, helps them to improve. They are guided by medical professionals while performing these exercises. The other form of age-old treatment is melodic intonation therapy. In this case, patients are asked to sing songs to express themselves.
The other mechanism for treating this disorder, is through increased neuroplasticity. This technique is known as Constraint-induced Aphasia Therapy (CIAT). The sessions of CIAT last for more than 6 hours, in which, language is connected with actions to improve communication skills. In some cases, patients are exposed to magnetic radiation, known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This deals with suppressing the inhibitory activity of neurons by exposure to external factors.
Other option of treatment is through pharmacological drugs. A prolonged treatment goes on with drugs that increase cerebral plasticity. They also show considerable effect in improving language function. In certain cases, they help to improve verbal fluency. Word retrieval therapy is also a way to increase their speech and power of communication. To name a few effective drugs, Bromocriptine, Amphetamine, Piracetam, and Cholinergic are administered for the purpose of treatment. Apart from this, a person is thoroughly counseled, so that he doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem, depression, and mental stress.
The condition requires prolonged treatment for complete recovery. However, in cases of serious brain injury, recovery is almost impossible. To end on a positive note, I must say that patients should always be taken care of, so that they do not feel neglected and one should try to speak to them and understand them even if they fail to do so.
