Human Cognitive Neuropsychology (Ellis & Young, 2014)
Ch. 5. Producing spoken words
Introduction
Semantic representations: the internal representations of the meanings of words and things.
Speech output lexicon (SOL): the memory storage from where spoken forms of words are
retrieved.
Phonemes: the distinctive sounds that a language uses (not to be confused with letters).
This chapter will be devoted to aphasic language disorders that afflict the translation
between concepts and sounds. First two word-finding disorders that have been studied in
detail will be discussed: anomias and neologistic jargonaphasia.
Anomias
Following the model describing the word retrieval in speech production (semantic system
SOL phoneme level speech), it can be assumed that impairments can occur on any of
those components/levels/modules. However, patients with naming problems are likely to
exhibit mixed symptoms from impairment to more components than one.
Anomia arising at the semantic level
The clearest evidence for semantic involvement in naming difficulties comes from reports of
patients who can name objects in some semantic categories but not others. For example: be
better at naming inanimate objects rather than living things.
Comprehension of pictures can also be impaired. Some patients have trouble
comprehending both pictures and naming and comprehending their spoken names. Other
patients could match the pictures with their spoken names or written names but couldn’t
produce the name itself. This suggests that the actual semantic representations are not
degraded, but rather the access to those representations.
A non-category-specific semantic anomia: patient JCU
Patient JCU also has naming difficulties because of a problem in or around the semantic
representations. However, this patient does not seem to have more troubles with one
category or another. JCU made more errors with semantic associates than unrelated names.
This suggests that the semantic information available to the patient was insufficient to
specify the exact target name, resulting activation of the phonological forms of close
semantic associates (e.g.: shown a picture of a tiger, given the cue ‘l’, JCU said “lion”).
Thus JCU might experience naming problems because of a general, non-specific impairment
to the semantic representations.
Anomia without semantic impairment: patient EST
From tests patient EST appeared to have intact semantic representations, though he had
difficulty accessing object names. He also was capable of sustaining good comprehension of
spoken and written words.
Ch. 5. Producing spoken words
Introduction
Semantic representations: the internal representations of the meanings of words and things.
Speech output lexicon (SOL): the memory storage from where spoken forms of words are
retrieved.
Phonemes: the distinctive sounds that a language uses (not to be confused with letters).
This chapter will be devoted to aphasic language disorders that afflict the translation
between concepts and sounds. First two word-finding disorders that have been studied in
detail will be discussed: anomias and neologistic jargonaphasia.
Anomias
Following the model describing the word retrieval in speech production (semantic system
SOL phoneme level speech), it can be assumed that impairments can occur on any of
those components/levels/modules. However, patients with naming problems are likely to
exhibit mixed symptoms from impairment to more components than one.
Anomia arising at the semantic level
The clearest evidence for semantic involvement in naming difficulties comes from reports of
patients who can name objects in some semantic categories but not others. For example: be
better at naming inanimate objects rather than living things.
Comprehension of pictures can also be impaired. Some patients have trouble
comprehending both pictures and naming and comprehending their spoken names. Other
patients could match the pictures with their spoken names or written names but couldn’t
produce the name itself. This suggests that the actual semantic representations are not
degraded, but rather the access to those representations.
A non-category-specific semantic anomia: patient JCU
Patient JCU also has naming difficulties because of a problem in or around the semantic
representations. However, this patient does not seem to have more troubles with one
category or another. JCU made more errors with semantic associates than unrelated names.
This suggests that the semantic information available to the patient was insufficient to
specify the exact target name, resulting activation of the phonological forms of close
semantic associates (e.g.: shown a picture of a tiger, given the cue ‘l’, JCU said “lion”).
Thus JCU might experience naming problems because of a general, non-specific impairment
to the semantic representations.
Anomia without semantic impairment: patient EST
From tests patient EST appeared to have intact semantic representations, though he had
difficulty accessing object names. He also was capable of sustaining good comprehension of
spoken and written words.
