Specijalna Edukacija i Rehabilitacija (Jan 2020)
Neurolinguistic and clinical aspect of agrammatism in aphasia
Abstract
Introduction. Agrammatism is a disorder of grammatical structure due to damage to the dominant hemisphere of the brain. Despite numerous studies, the nature of agrammatism has not yet been elucidated. Objective. We aimed to determine the anatomical-clinical correlation of agrammatic aphasia, its characteristics and approaches to treatment. Methods. We accessed electronic databases of Serbian libraries and search engines on the Internet. Printed literature at the University Library in Belgrade was also used. Results. Analysis of the anatomical-clinical correlation of agrammatism showed higher activation of anterior and posterior areas of the brain during the production of verbs with a complex structure of arguments. The lower left frontal cortex plays a primary role in the production of grammatical sentences, while the temporoparietal cortex participates in the lexical processing of the argument structure of verbs and plays a key role in semantic integration. The key features of agrammatism in aphasia are impaired syntactic processing and difficulties in using verbs with a complex argument structure. We pointed out the approaches to the treatment of agrammatism which involve practicing the metalinguistic properties of verbs in terms of their arguments. Conclusion. Although agrammatism is primarily associated with lesions of the frontal cortex, damage to posterior cortical areas also contributes to its occurrence. Deficits in syntactic processing and difficulties in the use of verbs with a complex argument structure are at the heart of agrammatic aphasia. The treatment of agrammatism aims to recover the knowledge of verbs in terms of argument structure and semantic thematic roles.
