Do I have aphasia?
No, it's just a blur. However, I feel that many of the symptoms described here apply.
This paper provides comprehensive information about aphasia. medical conditions, treatment (rehabilitation), etc.
According to the author, what is aphasia?
The left hemisphere of the brain has an area called the language area, which converts concepts and thoughts into a kind of coding system called language (encoding), and extracts specific meaning content from this coding system ( It is responsible for decoding). Aphasia is when this language area is damaged due to various causes (cerebrovascular accidents are the most common, followed by traumatic brain contusions, brain tumors, inflammation, etc.), and as a result, the language code that was previously functioning normally is damaged. A condition in which the operating functions of a device are impaired. (P.201)
I'm sure medical science is much more advanced now.
coding system
Is language a code system? It is clear that this word is a result of linguistics and semiotics. Within the relationship of the existence of a subject who relates things in the external world (in other words, if we consider "language" to be an objective entity), language is a code system. Like trees and water, both presuppose the existence of a subject who perceives them as objective beings. However, language (like the self/subject) does not exist ``outside.'' I think there is a fundamental problem in linguistics.
The study of language is concerned with its "subject-object structure" itself. Just like removing cancerous tissue with a scalpel, we try to remove it and study it.
For this purpose, a ``language field'' has been created. It is true that damage to that part will cause problems. But that doesn't mean that there is a language in that part.
Symptoms of aphasia
There are three main symptoms. (P.202-203)
(1) In the majority of cases, all areas of language function, including the comprehension and expression aspects of spoken and written language (i.e., all aspects of listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are impaired to a greater or lesser extent.
(2) In general, automatic, concrete, and simple aspects of language are relatively hard to be impaired and are easy to recover from, whereas the more intentional, abstract, and complex aspects of language are, the more likely to be impaired. Moreover, there are aspects of it that are difficult to recover from.
(3) Some language symptoms that are relatively common in many patients, such as articulation disorders, speech disorders, syntactic disorders, auditory comprehension disorders, reading disorders, and dysgraphia. When several symptoms are combined in various proportions, it is called an aphasia syndrome.
Furthermore, it can be classified as: (1) disorders of articulation or phoneme production, (2) disorders of invocation, (3) disorders of syntax, (4) disorders of auditory comprehension, (5) disorders of repetition, and (6) disorders of reading. handicap, (7) Handwriting handicap”.
Aphasia syndromes include: (1) Broker's aphasia (motor aphasia, expressive aphasia), (2) Wernicke's aphasia (sensory aphasia, receptive aphasia), (3) anomalous aphasia (amnestic aphasia), and (4) conduction aphasia. , (5) transcortical aphasia, (6) fluent and non-fluent aphasia, (7) global aphasia (irreversible aphasia), and (8) pure cases.
The related disorders listed are ``(1) dyscalculia, (2) agnosia/apraxia, and (3) impairment of intellectual function.'' The details of each will be omitted.
These findings bring order and predictability to the seemingly random and complex aphasia symptoms that could not be found using conventional methods, and at the same time support the psychological reality of these theories. Good morning. On the other hand, as mentioned above, in the language symptoms of aphasia patients, there are aspects that can be predicted from linguistic theory as well as aspects that cannot be predicted, and the latter is probably due to the mechanism of language operation in actual communication situations. It is presumed that this also reflects the characteristics and constraints of the psychological and physiological processes that support it. (P.222)
The "latter" is language, and without it language cannot exist. “Language” cut out from the whole is not actually a language at all.
Treatment of aphasia
The theoretical basis for aphasia treatment is ``(1) natural recovery theory, (2) compensation theory by the inferior hemisphere, (3) compensation theory by peripheral regions, (4) functional reorganization theory, and (5) disinhibition theory.'' (P. 223). . There are no detailed descriptions of each. However, I think most of them are saying that ``language is not just in the language field.'' The language field also has language functions. Just as my brain is not me, my language cortex is not language, and the cancer cells I removed are not cancer.The academic world is full of such ``mistakes.''
In Western scholarship, we examine the cut-out parts and infer the whole. That's just "one way of thinking." It's not "the only way".
On the other hand, there is an urgent need to establish a community-wide acceptance system that anticipates the limits of aphasia recovery, and there is an urgent need to promote comprehensive and specific measures with the cooperation of the entire local community. . (P.234)
Whether you consider these "limits" to be relative, that is, whether you believe that the limits will "lessen" as medicine develops, depends on whether you believe in "development (evolution)." think. When I think about this, I feel like I can begin to see what it means to be "alive."
