Aphasia : Symptoms, Diagnosis & Treatment

Aphasia is a language disorder in which there is an impairment (but not loss) of speech and of comprehension of speech. Depending on the area and extent of the damage, someone suffering from aphasia may be able to speak but not write, or vice versa, or display any of a wide variety of other deficiencies in language comprehension and production. This book will review grammatical world class processing by aphasic individuals and bilingual aphasia, each of which is essential to an understanding of the topic. This book will also examine the role of the right hemisphere for language processing and successful therapeutic interventions in aphasic patients. Furthermore, new findings for the understanding of neural processes involved in the recovery of language functions in aphasic subjects are discussed. This book also expands and improves upon the currently accepted methodology used in the diagnosis of dementia, particularly when aphasia is a core symptom. Finally, dual-route models and right-hemispheric accounts are examined to predict comprehension of figurative language in healthy speakers as well as in patients with language disorders.