[Current problems in the study of aphasia]

Abstract

In the introductory part of the present survey the author provides a sketchy illustration of the main anatomo-clinical aspects of aphasia, focusing attention on the main patterns of language impairment and on the corresponding cortical localizations usually observed in patients with cerebro-vascular disorders of ischemic nature. In the second part of the paper, some more recent aspects of aphasiology (namely the subcortical aphasias and the so called slowly progressive aphasia) are shortly discussed. As for the first point, it is suggested that language disorders observed in patients with purely subcortical lesions may be due to a remote effect of these lesions at the level of the cortical association areas, rather than to the subcortical injury per se. As for the second point it is still not clear if the slowly progressive aphasia is a disease or a syndrome resulting from the selective affinity for the posterior association areas of the left hemisphere of degenerative disorders, such as Pick's or Alzheimer's disease.