Damage to Broca's and Wernicke's areas results in contrasting forms of language deficits (aphasia):
- **Broca's Aphasia:** Individuals struggle with language production (difficulty speaking) but maintain their comprehension of spoken and written language.
- **Wernicke's Aphasia:** Individuals speak fluently and can produce sensible-sounding sentences, but they cannot comprehend spoken language, rendering their speech nonsensical in meaning.

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Aphasia is grouped into different types depending on the area of the brain affected and the symptoms specific to said damage. While most may think there are two types of aphasia, Broca's and Wernicke's, as these are the most common, there are actually ten types of aphasia.

Types of Aphasia

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

People with Wernicke's aphasia may have a lesion on the Wernicke's area of the brain or on a nearby portion of the left temporal lobe. People with this type of aphasia sound fluent or may speak quickly but they tend to use words that are neologisms or jibberish as they struggle to find appropriate vocabulary.

Wernicke's Aphasia

People with Broca's aphasia typically have a lesion on the Broca's center of the brain or on the nearby inferior, posterior portion of the frontal lobe. People with Broca's aphasia typically struggle with syntax/ do not perform proper grammar. 

Broca's Aphasia

People with global aphasia typically have large lesions across a large portion of the brain, including the frontal, parietal, and temporal areas of the brain. People with global aphasia typically have trouble speaking at all and may only be able to produce a few words or nonsense words.


Global Aphasia

People with conduction aphasia typically have lesions on their arcuate fasciculus. This pahasia is associated with difficulty repeating complex words and a desire to repeat phrases or make multiple attempts to correct errors.

Conduction Aphasia

Transcortical motor aphasia usually causes lesions on the anterior watershed area of the left frontal lobe of the brain. The symptoms of this form of aphasia are similar to Broca's aphasia, although the ability to repeat phrases is more intact.


Transcortical Motor Aphasia

There is no single area of brain damage or lesions associated with mixed transcortical aphasia as lesions will typically be found over a large area. The symptoms of mixed transcortical aphasia are similar to that of global aphasia, except that the ability to repeat is intact.

Mixed Transcortical Aphasia

Anomic aphasia is a language disorder typically associated with lesions on the angular gyrus. Individuals with anomic aphasia experience significant difficulty finding appropriate words for a given situation. As a result, they often rely on general terms, such as "object," "that," or "thing," when attempting to refer to something specific, like a "kettle."

Anomic Aphasia

Those with PPA are unique in that their form of aphasia is a slow-developing and insidious aphasia, not caused by sudden stroke or injury. PPA symptoms increase over time, with a slow starting difficulty in finding words, followed by slower speech.

Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)

Crossed aphasia is caused by lesion to the right hemisphere of the brain, rather than the left. An aphasia in language is still caused due to hemisphere crossing. This is very rare and only makes up about 3% of all stroke cases. 

Crossed Aphasia

Subcortical aphasia is any form or iteration of aphasia that is associated with a lesion below the cortex- despite the fact that language ability usually takes place in the cortex of the brain. Less is known about this form of aphasia. 



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