Definition

Noun: * A specific type of language impairment: Amnesic aphasia is a neurological condition characterized primarily by a severe difficulty in recalling and producing the names of objects, people, or places, despite relatively preserved comprehension and fluent speech. It is a form of anomic aphasia.

Usage

• Amnesic aphasia is a clinical term used in neurology, neuropsychology, and speech-language pathology.
• It describes a patient's symptom profile where word-finding difficulty, especially for nouns, is the dominant deficit.
• The term is often used in diagnostic reports and clinical discussions.

Examples

• The patient's stroke resulted in amnesic aphasia, leaving her unable to recall the word "watch" when shown one.
• A key feature of amnesic aphasia is the frequent use of circumlocution (talking around the word) to compensate for the naming deficit.
• His amnesic aphasia was evident; he could describe a pen's function perfectly but could not retrieve its name.

Advanced Usage

• The condition is often localized to damage in specific brain regions, such as the angular gyrus or temporal lobe areas.
• Amnesic aphasia is distinguished from other aphasias (like Broca's or Wernicke's) by the relative isolation of the naming problem.

Variants and Related Words

• Anomic Aphasia (n): A more general term often used synonymously with amnesic aphasia, highlighting the naming (anomia) problem.
• Nominal Aphasia (n): Another synonym emphasizing the difficulty with nouns (nominal terms).
• Anomia (n): The core symptom of word-finding difficulty, which is the central feature of amnesic aphasia.

Synonyms

• Anomic aphasia
• Nominal aphasia
• Amnestic aphasia

Related Phrases

• Word-finding difficulty: The primary symptom experienced by the individual.
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: A mild, everyday experience that resembles the profound deficit seen in amnesic aphasia.

Noun

1. inability to name objects or to recognize written or spoken names of objects