Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:24:30.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A redefinition of the syndrome of Broca's aphasia: Implications for a neuropsychological model of language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Rita Sloan Berndt  and
Alfonso Caramazza
Rita Sloan Berndt*
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Alfonso Caramazza
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
*
Rita Sloan Berndt, Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A neuropsychological theory is offered to account for the syndrome of Broca's aphasia. A critical review of the literature, with emphasis on recent research, provides the basis for a redefinition of the syndrome that considerably broadens its classical description. The argument is advanced that the focus of neuropsychological explanation should be on theoretically separable psychological mechanisms that might be disrupted in relative isolation from other components in conditions of focal brain damage, rather than on isolated units of aphasic performance. The symptoms that characterize Broca's aphasia are explained as predictable behavioral manifestations of a central disruption of the syntactic parsing component of the language System, coupled with a (theoretically independent) articulatory deficit that affects only the speech output System. The neuroanatomical implications of this argument are considered within the framework of the classical “strong localizationist” hypothesis.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , August 1980 , pp. 225 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andreewsky, E., & Seron, X.Implicit processing of grammatical rules in a classical case of agrammatism. Cortex, 1975, 11, 379–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benson, D. F.The third alexia. Archives of Neurology, 1977, 34, 327–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benson, D. F., Brown, J., & Tomlinson, E. B.Varieties of alexia: Word and letter blindness. Neurology, 1971, 21, 951–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benson, D. F., & Geschwind, N. The alexias. In Vinken, P. J. and Bruyn, G. W. (Eds.), Handbook of Clinical Nuerology, Vol. 4. Amsterdam: North Hoiland Publishing, 1969.Google Scholar
Benson, D. F., & Geschwind, N. The aphasias and related disturbances. In Baker, A. B. and Baker, L. H. (Eds.), Clinical Neurology. Vol. 1. Hagerstown: Harper & Row, 1977.Google Scholar
Berndt, R. & Caramazza, A. Semantic operations deficits in sentence comprehension. Psychological Research, in press.Google Scholar
Bever, T. G. The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In Hayes, T. R. (Ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1970.Google Scholar
Bliss, L. S., Tikofsky, R. S., & Guilford, A. M.Aphasies' sentence repetition behavior as a function of grammaticality. Cortex, 1976, 12, 113–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumstein, S., Baker, E., & Goodglass, H.Phonological factors in auditory comprehension in aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 1977, 15, 19–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blumstein, S., Cooper, W., Zurif, E. B., & Caramazza, A.The perception and production of VOT in aphasia. Neuropsychologia. 1976, 15, 371–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumstein, S., & Goodglass, H.The perception of stress as a semantic cue in aphasia. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1972, 15, 800–806.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boller, F., Kim, Y., & Mack, J. Auditory comprehension in aphasia. In Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H. A. (Eds.), Studies in Neurolinguistics. Vol. 3. New York: Academic Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Bradley, D. C. Computational distinctions of verbal types. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978.Google Scholar
Bradley, C., Garrett, M. E., & Zurif, E. B. Syntactic deficits in Broca's aphasia. In Caplan, D. (Ed.), Biological studies of mental processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Brown, J. W.Mind, brain and consciousness. New York: Academic Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Brown, R.A first language: The early stages. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caramazza, A., & Berndt, R. S.Semantic and syntactic processes in aphasia: A review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 1978, 85(4), 898–918.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caramazza, A., & Zurif, E. B.Dissociation of algorithmic and heuristic processes in language comprehension: Evidence from aphasia. Brain and Language, 1976, 3, 572–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caramazza, A., Zurif, E. B., & Gardner, H.Sentence memory in aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 1978, 16, 661–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chomsky, N.Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H., & Clark, E. V.Psychology and language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977.Google Scholar
Dennis, M., & Kohn, B.Comprehension of syntax in infantile hemiplegies after cerebral hemidecortication: Left-hemisphere superiority. Brain and Language, 1975, 2, 472–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennis, M., & Whitaker, H. H.Language acquisition following hemidecortication. Brain and Language, 1976, 3, 404–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeRenzi, E., & Vignolo, L. A.The Token Test: A sensitive test to detect receptive disturbances in aphasics. Brain, 1962, 85, 665–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Villiers, J. G.Quantitative aspects of agrammatism in aphasia. Cortex, 1974, 10, 36–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fodor, J. A., & Garrett, M. F.Some syntactic determinants of sentential complexity. Perception and Psychophysics, 1967, 2, 289–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frazier, L.On comprehending sentences: Syntactic parsing strategies. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1979.Google Scholar
Gardner, H., Denes, G., & Zurif, E.Critical reading at the sentence level in aphasia. Cortex, 1975, 11, 60–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gardner, H., & Zurif, E.“Bee” but not “be”: Oral reading of single words in aphasia and alexia. Neuropsychologia, 1975, 13, 181–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, H., & Zurif, E.Critical reading of words and phrases in aphasia. Brain and Language, 1976, 3, 173–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gleason, J. B., Goodglass, H., Green, E., Ackerman, N., & Hyde, M. R.The retrieval of syntax in Broca's aphasia. Brain and Language, 1975, 2, 451–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, K.Language and language disturbances. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1948.Google Scholar
Goodenough, C., Zurif, E., & Weintraub, S.Aphasies' attention to grammatical morphemes. Language and Speech. 1977, 20, 11–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodglass, H. Redefining the concept of agrammatism in aphasia. In Croatto, L. and Croatto-Martinolli, C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the XIIth International Speech and Voice Therapy Conference. Padua, Italy, 1962.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H. Studies on the grammar of aphasies. In Rosenberg, S. and Koplin, J. H. (Eds.), Developments in applied psycholinguistics research. New York: Macmillan, 1968.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H. Agrammatism. In Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H. A. (Eds.), Studies in neurolinguistics, Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H., & Berko, J.Agrammatism and inflectional morphology in English. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1960, 3, 257–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodglass, H., Blumstein, S. E., Gleason, J. B., Hyde, M. R., Green, E., & Statlender, S.The effect of syntactic encoding on sentence comprehension in aphasia. Brain and Language, 1979, 7, 201–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodglass, H., Fodor, I. G., & Schulhoff, C.Prosodic factors in grammar – Evidence from aphasia. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1967, 10, (1), 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodglass, H., & Geschwind, N. Language disorders (aphasia). In Carterette, E. C. and Friedman, M. P. (Eds.), Handbook of perception. Vol. 7, Speech and language. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H., Gleason, J. B., Bernholtz, N. A., & Hyde, M. R.Some linguistic structures in the speech of a Broca's aphasic. Cortex, 1972, 8, 191–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodglass, H., Gleason, J. B., & Hyde, M. R.Some dimensions of auditory language comprehension in aphasia. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1970, 13, 595–606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodglass, H., & Hunt, J.Grammatical complexity and aphasic speech. Word, 1958, 14, 197–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodglass, H., & Hunter, M.A linguistic comparison of speech and writ ing in two types of aphasia. Journal of Communication Disorders, 1970, 3, 28–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodglass, M., & Kaplan, E.The assessment of aphasia and related disorders. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1972.Google Scholar
Goodglass, H., Quadfasel, F. A., & Timberlake, W. H.Phrase length and the type and severity of aphasia. Cortex, 1964, 1, 133–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heilman, K. M., & Scholes, R. J.The nature of comprehension errors in Broca's, conduction, and Wernicke's aphasics. Cortex, 1976, 12(3), 258–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howes, D. Application of the word frequency concept to aphasia. In DcReuck, A.V.S. and O'Connor, M. (Eds.), Ciba foundation symposium on disorders of language. London: Churchill, 1964.Google Scholar
Howes, D. Hypotheses concerning the functions of the language mechanism. In Salzinger, S. and Salzinger, K. (Eds.) Research in verbal behavior and some neurophysiological implications. New York: Academic Press: 1967.Google Scholar
Howes, D., & Geschwind, N. Statistical properties of aphasic speech. Unpublished progress report, USPHS Grant M-1802, Boston, 1962.Google Scholar
Isserlin, M.Uber Agrammatismus. Zeitschrift für die Gesante Neurologie and Psychiatrie, 1922, 75, 332–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakobson, R. Two aspects of language and two types of aphasic disturbances. In Jakobson, R. and Halle, M. (Eds.), Fundamentals of language. The Hague: Mouton, 1956.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R. Towards a linguistic typology of aphasic impairments. In deReuck, A.V.S. and O'Connor, M. (Eds.) Ciba foundation symposium on disorders of language. London: Churchill, 1964.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. C.Hierarchical clustering schemes. Psychometrika, 1967, 32, 241–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, L. V., & Wepman, J. M.Grammatical indicants of speaking styles in normal and aphasie speakers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Psychometric Laboratory, Publication No. 46, 1965.Google Scholar
Kean, M. L.The linguistic interpretation of aphasic syndromes: Agrammatism in Broca's aphasia, an example. Cognition, 1977, 5, 9–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kean, M. L. The linguistic interpretation of aphasic syndromes. In Walker, E. (Ed.), Explorations in the biology of language. Montgomery, Vermont: Bradford Books, 1978.Google Scholar
Kellar, L.Stress and syntax in aphasia. Paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of Aphasia, Chicago, 1978.Google Scholar
Kertesz, A., Lesk, D., & McCabe, P.Isotope localization of infarcts in aphasia. Archives of Neurology, 1977, 34, 590–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kimball, J.Seven principles of surface structure parsing in natural language. Cognition, 1973, 2, 15–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimball, J. Predictive analysis and over-the-top parsing. In Kimball, J. (Ed.), Syntax and semantics, Vol. 4. New York, Academic Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Kleist, K.Gehirnpathologie. Leipzig: Barth, 1934.Google Scholar
Kolk, H. H. J.The linguistic interpretation of Broca's aphasia: A reply to M. L. Kean. Cognition, 1978, 6, 353–61. (a)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolk, H. H. J.Judgment of sentence structure in Broca's aphasia. Neuropsychologia. 1978, 16, 617–25. (b)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenneberg, E. H.The neurology of language. Daedalus, 1973, 102, 115–33.Google Scholar
Lesser, R.Verbal comprehension in aphasia: An English version of three Italian tests. Cortex, 1974, 10, 247–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lesser, R.Linguistic investigations of aphasia. New York: Elsevier North-Holland, 1978.Google Scholar
Levelt, W. J. N. A scaling approach to the study of syntactic relations. In d'Arcais, G. B. Flores and Levelt, W. J. M. (Eds.), Advances in psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: North Holland, 1970.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R. Factors and forms of aphasia. In DeReuck, A.V.S. and O'Connor, M. (Eds.), Ciba foundation symposium on disorders of language. London: Churchill, 1964.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R.Traumatic aphasia. The Hague: Mouton, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luria, A. R.Two kinds of disorders in the comprehension of grammatical constructions. Linguistics, 1975, 154/155. 47–56.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R.Basic problems of neurolinguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luria, A. R.Disturbances of grammatical operations in semantic aphasia. Neurolinguistics, 1977, 6, 169–76.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. P.The use of definite and indefinite reference in young children. London: Cambridge University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Marin, O. S. M., Saffran, E. M., & Schwartz, M. F.Dissociations of language in aphasia: Implications for normal functions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1976, 280, 868–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, J. C. Disorders in the expression of language. In Morton, J. and Marshall, J. (Eds.), Psycholingustics: Developmental and pathological. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Marshall, J. C. & Newcombe, F.Syntactic and semantic errors in paralexia. Neuropsychologia, 1966, 4, 169–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, J. C. & Newcombe, F.Patterns of paralexia: A psycholinguistic approach, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1973, 2, 175–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, E.Toward an analysis of subjective phrase structure. Psychological Bulletin, 1970, 74, 153–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R., & Caramazza, A. Classification in well-defined and ill-defined categories: Evidence for common processing strategies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press.Google Scholar
Mohr, T. R. Broca's area and Brocay's aphasia. In Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H. A. (Eds.), Studies in neurolinguislics. Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Olson, D.Language and thought: Aspects of a cognitive theory of semantics. Psychological Review, 1970, 77, 257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parisi, D., & Pizzamiglio, L.Syntactic comprehension in aphasia. Cortex, 1970, 6, 204–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, K. E., & Marcel, A. J.Aphasia, dyslexia, and the phonological coding of written words. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1977, 29, 307–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perlmutter, D. M. On the article in English. In Bierwisch, M. and Heidolph, K. E. (Eds.), Progress in Linguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 1970.Google Scholar
Pick, A.Die Agrammatischer Sprachstonngen. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1913.Google Scholar
Poeck, K., Kerschensteiner, M., & Hartje, W.A quantitative study of language understanding in fluent and nonfluent aphasia. Cortex, 1972, 8, 299–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, J. T. E.The effect of word imageability in acquired dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, 1975, 13, 281–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, E. M., & Marin, O. S. M.Reading without phonology: Evidence from aphasia. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1977, 29, 515–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, E. M., & Marin, O. S. M.Reading without phonology, Evidence from aphasia. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1977, 29, 515–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samuels, J. A., & Benson, D. F.Some aspects of language comprehension in anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 1979, 8, 275–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schnitzer, M. L.Aphasiological evidence for five linguistic hypotheses. Language, 1974, 50, 300–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholes, R. Syntactic and lexical components of sentence comprehension. In Caramazza, A. and Zurif, E. (Eds.), Language acquisition and language breakdown. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M. F., Saffran, E. M., & Marin, O. S. M.An analysis of agrammatic reading in aphasia. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Santa Fe, New Mexico, February, 1977.Google Scholar
Schwartz, M. F., Saffran, E. M., & Marin, O. S. M. The word order problem in agrammatism: I. Comprehension. Brain and Language, in press.Google Scholar
Shallice, T., & Warrington, E. K.Word recognition in a phonemic dyslexie patient. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1975, 27, 187–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shewan, C. M.Error pattern in auditory comprehension of adult aphasics. Cortex, 1976, 12, 325–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shewan, C. M., & Canter, C. J.Effects of vocabulary, syntax, and sentence length on auditory comprehension in aphasic patients. Cortex, 1971, 7, 209–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, M. D.On the understanding of some relational words in aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 1974, 12, 377–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
vonStockert, T. R.Recognition of syntactic structure in aphasic patients. Cortex, 1972, 8, 323–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
vonStockert, T. R., & Bader, L.Some relations of grammar and lexicon in aphasia. Cortex, 1976, 12, 49–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weigl, E., & Bierwisch, M.Neuropsychology and linguistics: Topics of common research. Foundations of Language, 1970, 6, 1–30.Google Scholar
Weisenberg, T., & McBride, K.Aphasia. New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1935.Google ScholarPubMed
Wepman, J. M., & Jones, L. V. Five aphasias. In Disorders of Communication, Research Publications of the Association for Research on Nervous and Mental Diseases, 1964.Google ScholarPubMed
Wernicke, C.Der aphasische symptomencomplex. Breslau: Cohn and Weigert, 1874. Reprinted and translated in Boston studies in the philosophy of science, Vol 4. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Whitaker, H. A.Unsolicited nominalizations by aphasics: The plausibility of the Lexicalist model. Linguislics, 1972, 78, 62–71.Google Scholar
Whitaker, H. A.Linguistic competence: Evidence from aphasia. Glossa, 1970, 4(1), 46–54.Google Scholar
Whitaker, H. A., & Selnes, O. A.Broca's area: A problem in language-brain relationships. Linguistics, 1975, 154/155, 91–103.Google Scholar
Zurif, E., & Blumstein, S. Language and the brain. In Halle, M., Bresnan, J., and Miller, G. (Eds.), Linguistic theory and psychological reality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Zurif, E. B., & Caramazza, A. Psycholinguistic structures in aphasia: Studies in syntax and semantics. In Whitaker, H. and Whitaker, H. A. (Eds.), Studies in neurolinguistics. Vol. 1. New York: Academic Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Zurif, E. B., Caramazza, A., & Myerson, R.Grammatical judgments of agrammatic aphasics. Neuropsychologia, 1972, 10, 405–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zurif, E. B., Green, E., Caramazza, A., & Goodenough, C.Grammatical intuitions of aphasic patients: Sensitivity to functors. Cortex, 1976, 12, 183–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar