Aphasia and Apraxia: Understanding Neurological Disorders

Study Notes

Aphasia and Apraxia

Conduction aphasia: difficulty repeating words and sentences despite understanding language, associated with lesions in the arcuate fasciculus.
Constructional apraxia: difficulty in drawing or assembling objects, associated with lesions in the parietal lobe.
Disconnection apraxia: difficulty in tasks that require coordination between different parts of the body, associated with lesions in the corpus callosum.
Dressing apraxia: difficulty in dressing oneself due to an inability to sequence and coordinate movements, associated with lesions in the parietal lobe, right hemisphere.
Apraxia: inability to perform tasks or movements when asked, associated with lesions in the area 6 premotor area and frontal and parietal lobes.

Visual and Sensory Disorders

Cortical blindness: partial or complete loss of vision due to damage to the brain's visual cortex, despite the eyes being physically healthy, associated with bilateral lesions of the primary visual cortex.
Dyschromatopsia: difficulty in perceiving colors, often resulting from damage to the brain's visual processing centers, associated with lesions in the occipital lobe, particularly the fusiform gyrus.
Hemianesthesia: loss of sensation on one side of the body, associated with lesions in the parietal lobe.
Hemianopsia: loss of half of the visual field in one or both eyes, associated with lesions in the occipital lobe (primary visual cortex).

Language Disorders

Alexia: inability to read, associated with lesions in the left occipital lobe and splenium of corpus callosum.
Anomia: difficulty in naming an object or person, associated with lesions in the left temporal lobe.
Aprosody: difficulty expressing or understanding the emotional tone of speech, associated with lesions in the area 44 Broca's Area and right hemisphere, particularly right frontal lobe.

Other Neurological Disorders

Anosognosia: unawareness of one's own illness or disability, associated with lesions in the area 40 Broca's Area and parietal lobe, often right hemisphere.
Apathy: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern about things that usually interest or excite others, associated with lesions in the prefrontal cortex, particularly medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).
Athetosis: involuntary, slow, writhing movements, typically affecting the hands, feet, and sometimes the face, associated with lesions in the globus pallidus and basal ganglia.
Dysphagia: difficulty swallowing, associated with lesions in the area 3, 1, 2 (primary somatosensory cortex) and brainstem or cortical areas involved in motor control.
Gerstmann's syndrome: neurological condition characterized by a combination of symptoms including difficulty with writing, associated with lesions in the area 39 and left parietal lobe - angular gyrus.
Global aphasia: severe impairment in all aspects of language comprehension and production, associated with large lesions affecting both Broca's and Wernicke's area and surrounding regions.
Hemiballismus: involuntary, violent, and flinging movements of one side of the body, associated with lesions in the subthalamic nucleus.
Hemiplegia: paralysis of one side of the body, associated with lesions in the motor cortex.
Hemispatial neglect: inattention to one side of space, typically after damage to the right parietal lobe of the brain.
Ideational apraxia: difficulty in conceptualizing or planning a sequence of coordinated movements required to perform a task, associated with lesions in the parietal lobe.