What is "expressive aphasia"

n. aphasia in which expression by speech or writing is severely impaired [syn: motor aphasia, Broca's aphasia, ataxic aphasia, nonfluent aphasia]

Expressive aphasia (non-fluent aphasia) is characterized by the loss of the ability to produce language (spoken or written). A person with expressive aphasia will exhibit effortful speech. Speech may only include important content words and leave out insignificant words, like "the". This is known as "telegraphic speech". The person may still be understood, but sentences will not be grammatical. In very severe forms of Expressive Aphasia, a person may only speak using single word utterances. It is one subset of a larger family of disorders known collectively as aphasia. Expressive aphasia differs from dysarthria, which is typified by a patient's inability to properly move the muscles of the tongue and mouth to produce speech. Expressive aphasia also differs from apraxia of speech which is a motor disorder characterized by an inability to create and sequence motor plans for speech. Comprehension is typically only mildly to moderately impaired in expressive aphasia due to difficulty understanding complex grammar. This contrasts with receptive aphasia, which is distinguished by a patient's inability to comprehend language or speak with appropriately meaningful words. Expressive aphasia is also known as Broca's aphasia in clinical neuropsychology and agrammatic aphasia in cognitive neuropsychology and is caused by acquired damage to the anterior regions of the brain, including (but not limited to) the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus or inferior frontal operculum, also described as Broca's area ( Brodmann area 44 and Brodmann area 45). Expressive aphasia is also a symptom of some migraine attacks.