Wernicke's Aphasia

DisclaimerThis page is not here to be used as a self-diagnosis, self-identification, or promotion - it's simply here to be informational. Whether or not one self-diagnoses, self-identifies, and/or seeks a professional diagnosis is up to them.

**Wernicke's Aphasia**, also called **Fluent Aphasia** or **Receptive Aphasia**, is the most common type of aphasia. Reading and writing are often severely impaired, individuals with Wernicke's aphasia can produce words and often speak using grammatically correct sentences with a normal rate and prosody. Although what they do say doesn't make a lot of sense or has non-existent and irrelevant words as well.

## Signs & Symptoms

Regarding speech and comprehension, individuals with Wernicke's aphasia may:

* String words together to make sentences that don't make sense
* Make up words that have no meaning
* Be unaware of the mistakes in their speech
* Deliver words in a normal, melodic line, even if the content may not make sense
* Articulate their words normally
* Have difficulty repeating phrases
* Add words when trying to repeat someone
* Interrupt others and speak rapidly

Difficulty with spoken language may or may not carry over to other aspects of brain functioning. How other brain functions may be affected include:

* Having severely impaired reading and writing abilities
* Understand visual materials better than written or spoken words

One may maintain cognitive abilities other than those associated with language.

## Causes

Wernicke's aphasia occurs when the left middle side of the brain, known as Wernicke's area, is damaged or altered.

Stroke is one potential cause of the condition. Other conditions that may affect the Wernicke's area of the brain include:

* Head trauma
* Tumors
* Infections
* Neurological disorders

## Treatment

When Wernicke's aphasia is caused by a stroke, recovery of language function peaks within two to six months, after which further progress is limited. There is no known cure for Wernicke's aphasia though.

## Wernicke's Aphasia in Media

### Specific Media

In the fifth episode of the first season of *Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*, "Babel", the inhabitants of the station are infected with a virus that mimics the symptoms of aphasia. While Wernicke's aphasia is not specified, it is the most likely exact form of aphasia the crew experienced. It was found that Bajoran terrorists put a virus into the replicators of the station to infect the Cardassians with these symptoms to take back their homeplanet. They did not remove this virus when the station was given to the Federation after the occupation of Bajor was lifted. This virus caused the inhabitants to speak in a normal rate with grammatically accurate sentence structure, but they were unaware that what they were saying did not make any sense, with phrases such as, "Glass lunch judge a bin to let in!"

## References

Acharya AB, Wroten M. Wernicke Aphasia. [Updated 2022 Aug 8]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441951/

https://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/wernickes-aphasia/

https://www.healthline.com/health/wernickes-aphasia

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Babel\_(episode)