Fluent Aphasia

Fluent Aphasia

Receptive aphasia, also known as Wernicke’s aphasia, fluent aphasia, or sensory aphasia, is a type of aphasia traditionally associated with neurological damage to Wernicke’s area in the brain, (Brodmann area 22, in the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere). However, the key deficits of receptive aphasia do not come from damage to Wernicke's area; instead, most of the core difficulties are proposed to come from damage to the medial temporal lobe and underlying white matter. Damage in this area not only destroys local language regions but also cuts off most of the occipital, temporal, and parietal regions from the core language region.

People with receptive aphasia can speak with normal grammar, syntax, rate, intonation, and stress, but they are unable to understand language in its written or spoken form.

Receptive aphasia is not to be confused with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.