Can aphasia like symptoms be caused by something other than physical trauma to the brain?

Question

From what I've read, Aphasia is always caused by trauma, either a head injury, stroke, etc.

Are there linguistic disorders related to the brain selecting the wrong word etc. that are physiological or psychological that are not caused by physical issues in the brain?

@Gordon But as far as I‘m aware, any ischaemia (be it a Transient Ischaemic Attack or a Stroke, a bleeding or a silent stroke) has pathological causes. I don’t think that‘s the direction to go... — Narusan, Sep 11 '18 at 20:40
tumors could cause such symptoms also. Infrequently, electrolytes imbalance and dehydration, specially in elderly. — N00, Sep 11 '18 at 04:35
Hi. I am sure you are right. I removed it. I don't want to cause any confusion. — Gordon, Sep 13 '18 at 00:42

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:58

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No. An Aphasia is defined as

a disturbance of the comprehension and formulation of language caused by dysfunction in specific brain regions. It results from a breakdown of the two-way translation that establishes a correspondence between thoughts and language.

^{Damasio, A.R. (February 1992). "Aphasia". N Engl J Med. 326 (8): 531–9.}

Wikipedia cites that article saying that there needs to be „damage to specific reasons of brain“. Because of this very definition, there is no psychological aphasia, as it then wouldn’t be called aphasia.

Most psychological diseases (dementia as a prime example) have also pathophysiological causes within then brain, so aphasia due to dementia would also be due to brain injury.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:58

Community

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answered Sep 11 '18 at 20:49

Narusan

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Okay, but what would you call a similar issue caused by physiological issues rather than anatomical issues? That was the question. – Daniel Goldman Sep 12 '18 at 16:49
Physiological is basically anatomical. Do you mean psychological? – Narusan Sep 12 '18 at 17:10
Physiological can be neurotransmitter imbalances, etc. However let's include psychological issues as well. In other words, like aphasia but not requiring there to be some kind of physical damage to the brain. – Daniel Goldman Sep 12 '18 at 18:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 13 '18 at 00:34

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Aphasia can be a manifestation of epilepsy.

See this case report http://n.neurology.org/content/56/1/134

Where it was thought the aphasia was post-ictal but examination by EEG showed on going ictal activity.

answered Sep 13 '18 at 00:34

Graham Chiu

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Can aphasia like symptoms be caused by something other than physical trauma to the brain?

2 Answers2