dysphasia.

So I'm currently studying the brain block and in the hospital the other day, our Reg told us about an interesting set of syndromes which all come under the setting of 'Dysphasia', which generally describes an impairment of speech and/or comprehension of speech.

Speech is controlled by two different areas on the dominant cerebral hemisphere - Broca's Area, which is found in the Frontal Lobe, and Wernicke's Area which is found in the Temporal Lobe. Broca's area is associated with the muscles and movement of the body involved in forming speech, meaning that any lesion, disorder or disease that affects this area results in upset or dysfunction in the formation of words and the repetition of words, known as Expressive Dysphasia; usually comprehension of language is preserved with this dysphasia. Wernicke's area is the 'Auditory association cortex', where auditory information is further processed and interpreted, and then acts upon Broca's to provide the accurate spoken word in response to auditory cues. When Wernicke's area is disrupted or a lesion forms there, an individual loses their ability to comprehend spoken word and to understand a conversation or questions and presents as Receptive Dysphasia.

Our reg, Clare, then gave us a way to differentiate between the two.
Doctor and Patient with Expressive Dysphasia
Doctor: Can you describe this room to me?
Patient (with ED): The room is sideways, the rain is in the light, the coffee cup is on a pen, the chair is on a table

The patient is capable of speaking normally and it is evident that they're describing something.

In a patient with Receptive Dysphasia.
Doctor: Can you describe this room to me?
Patient (with RD): Super-cala-fragilistic-expee-alidosis, super, expee, hoot hoot.

It is evident that their interpretation of language is wrong.

Therefore in order to further discriminate between the two, you would give them a set of instructions such as 'close you eyes', 'touch the window', whereby if the patient is capable of doing these it is expressive dysphasia (comprehends instructions), and if the patient is incapable then it is receptive dysphasia (incomprehension of instructions).

Further, the corresponding area in the non-dominant Cerebral hemisphere to Broca's provides musical tone and quality to the voice when speaking, so that if there is a lesion in this area the person presents with a monotone voice.