[Aphasia: semiology and clinical patterns].
BACKGROUND
Human language is the final result of a group of brain activities directed towards the reception, integration and elaboration of linguistic messages.


METHODS
The disorganization of these activities following brain damage brings about a new linguistic functional level which constitutes the aphasic syndrome. Its assessment provides the clinician with information on the destroyed and impaired aspects and on those that have remained intact. The rehabilitation of aphasia should take into account the different components of the neurolinguistic semiology which have been evidenced by previous assessment, without forgetting that the rehabilitation process does not only have to deal with the expressive and receptive aspects of language, but also with a range of other possible cognitive impairments caused by the cerebral lesion and with the social and emotional problems that follow the new personal and social situation after the lesion.
Vendrell
J M
JM
Servicio de Neurología; Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, España. jvendrell@cbi.es
D001037:Aphasia / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans