Aphasia Types Explained: Broca's, Wernicke's, and Celebrity Diagnoses

Broca's aphasia. Wernicke's aphasia. Global aphasia. Conduction aphasia. The clinical labels matter — but what do they actually mean for the person living inside them? Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson breaks down the hallmark features of each major aphasia type, explains the difference between left and right hemisphere stroke presentations, and clarifies what the research says about recovery trajectories. 

Angie Cauthorn shares which celebrity diagnosis mirrors her own experience with aphasia. For survivors trying to understand their diagnosis, caregivers navigating treatment decisions, and students preparing for clinical practice — this is the clearest breakdown you will find.

https://aphasiaadvocates.com/ for Brain Friends Merch

https://aphasia.org/event/ask-the-expert-february-2026/

https://www.cognitiverecoverylab.com/seles

https://aphasia.org/stories/announcing-the-davetrina-seles-gadson-health-equity-grant-program/

Our beloved colleague, Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, passed away January 11, 2025. Dr. Gadson was an extraordinary speech-language pathologist and neuroscience researcher who devoted her energy to studying health disparities in aphasia recovery. She was a fierce advocate for improving services for individuals with aphasia, particularly Black Americans. Her research transformed our understanding of these health disparities and shed light on how we can address them. We were privileged to have Dr. Gadson as a cherished member of our lab community for four years, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as an Instructor of Rehabilitation Medicine. She was still a close collaborator and friend to many of us at the time of her passing. Dr. Gadson was an incredible person—compassionate, inspiring, and full of life. Her dedication to advancing equity in aphasia recovery and her profound impact on our community will never be forgotten. ...

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Brain Friends, where two neuroneerds talk all things aphasia, language recovery, culture, and community. I am Dr. Dacrina Celeste Gatson, a clinical speech language pathologist and neuroscientist.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

And I am Angie Clawthorn, stroke survivor and aphasia advocate. Welcome to our show. Welcome, Debrain Friend.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

We want to thank all of our listeners for downloading the podcast. We appreciate everyone listening. So please tell a friend to tell a friend that we are here. And we are. Yeah. So I have one coming up in Charleston, which I'm really excited about, Charles, Charleston, South Carolina. And then there's one that I that I'm submitting to one of my favorite conferences that is in Jersey this year. So fingers crossed, because I would love to come out to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Oh, for the CAC. CA. Okay, come on. Yes. The Clinical Ephysiology Conference, the CAC.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Well, fun fact your girl is the keynote responder.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Alrighty! Yes. See, so now I've got to definitely push to get this abstract submitted and hopefully accept it so we can be in those CAC streets together.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Street on these broadwalks, doing it. Yeah, they asked me to be the uh keynote responder. And um, I actually have a meeting coming up in a few days to uh discuss uh how something like that might work or what that looks like. So I'm excited, but yeah, I guess I would see you there.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Oh my god, you're I mean, this is one of my favorite conferences. Uh really oh, out of all of them, yeah. I've always enjoyed this conference.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

What is that that makes this one different versus like um, you know, like the one that was just in New Orleans or aphasia access? What's the difference? Because I've never been to a CAC.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Yeah, so the thing that I like about like CAC is that it's a smaller conference, and so it's not gonna going to be as large as the one that was in New Orleans. And so it gives you an opportunity to really meet other scholars, meet other students, connect, talk about research. I find that uh this conference really aligns a lot with my viewpoint in aphasia, which is asking the patient quality of life. Um, and I feel like they're really open to diversity. Hence, you're the you've already been invited to be the keynote respondent. Um, and I was the keynote respondent last year. And so just the point that they're continuing. Yeah. Yeah, myself and um Dr. Charles Ellis. I know you know him. Shout out, Dr. Ellis.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

What's up, Chuck? Let me stop he's like, I'll leave like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

No, Dr. Ellis. Yeah, so I I really like that part. And then the other part that I like about um this conference that can sometimes be a good thing or a bad thing, but in order to go to the conference, you have to submit something. And so it's not one of those conferences that you can kind of go to and um, I don't want to say warm the pew, as we would say. Right. Everybody's doing something. You've got, yeah, you've you're bringing your idea, you know, even if your presentation doesn't get accepted, but you know, you're you're bringing, you're contributing something to the science and scholarship. And the people are nice. You know, sometimes look, honey, everybody ain't nice. Right. So that's one thing that I do enjoy about this. I think that there's a level of genuine just uh interest.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

I found that I went, uh spoke at a conference. The first time I actually met Dr. Charles Ellis, I spoke with him on a panel, and I it was for aphasia access, actually. Uh shout out to Todd Van Diek and um his team, that's my boy. But everybody was so nice and kind. And that was what, from a person that worked in the finance auto industry, I found that to be so refreshing. Like everyone was, nobody was talking about their billable hours, nobody was talking about uh, you know, that trouble that they're having with um, you know, a certain type of per. You know, it was just everyone was just LLP, which is what is L Lpa, I'm sorry, uh, you know, life participation type of how can we better these people's lives? And that was what I the big takeaway I heard from them was uh such, so it was just genuine. And um, I really uh I was really taken aback by their level of kindness that I heard.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Yeah, because the other thing is that sometimes as a minority, when you're going to these conferences and no one looks like you, very much it could be an isolating experience. And so anytime you go to a conference or anytime that I've been to a conference and I I felt like I didn't always have to be the one to initiate inclusion, that's those are the types of spaces that I feel like I want to be part of, and that also also really not only just talk the talk about wanting diversity, but they're walking it because they're gonna come up to you and you know engage you versus you sitting alone or just going back to your room after stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Exactly, exactly. And um, yeah, it's uh good stuff. So we done talked the whole, we done just you'd like, how you doing? I'm like, I'm great. We're gonna talk about this conference. That is so cool, but I am gonna uh pick your brain on how to be a good responder. I didn't know that you uh that you had that, so that'd be good. So what is going on? What are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

So today we're gonna talk about celebrity aphasia. Uh, we have a couple of people on the docket, and we want to definitely give the disclaimer that this is a brain friends conversation. We have not been consulted out, we have not spoken with the family, all of that.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

We are available. There is a skill set available that my girl has. If you want to holler at my girl, you give her a call.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

She's available. Definitely available.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

So, yeah, so we're gonna do the real celebrity aphasia, and I have a couple of aphasia people or not not knowing if they all have aphasia, but uh these are individuals that have been in this in the media and have some type of brain injury, whether it is aphasia or stroke.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

So, yeah. That is definitely what's up. Um, I had written um well, read something, and I'm just gonna share it, um, and hopefully it'll help us uh kind of get into it a little bit. It says there's different types of aphasia depending upon the severity of the cognitive impairment. Bruce Willis has aphasia in the most severe type, um, which uh involves the complete loss of speech and comprehensive abilities. Uh Gabby Giffords has a different type of aphasia, which is a partial loss of speech and comprehension due to brain damage. And uh Fetterman uh has uh difficulty producing words more like me, like he's more in line with me. So I just find that to be the fact that there's so um would Gabby Gifford's be like uh Warnikes or Burkus?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Right. So I'm not I'm not familiar with Gabby Gifford's classification, um, but recently I know the National Aphasia Association had a night with Gabby to where it was her and her speech language pathologist um kind of doing a QA and just engaging um members that the aphasia community. And based off of what I saw there, I wouldn't classify her as a Wernicke's, meaning uh someone that has difficulty understanding uh conversation and communication because it seemed as if she was doing very well in that space, um, or even broke us because she was able to have fluency in speech. So I wouldn't necessarily classify her as that either. I think I think sometimes when it comes to the classifications, they're very helpful, but it can be challenging to classify someone based off of a snippet. So I would probably need to have heard a little bit more and then also just not sure how much script training and preparation was given for that communication um um communication performance that she gave. Not performance, you know what I'm trying to say, experience, so but I do want to say one thing about Bruce Willis. So the thing with Bruce Willis is I'm not sure how much from a speaking or cognitive piece he is um experiencing difficulty, but I will say one thing about Bruce Willis that's different from the other individuals you mentioned, um, Fetterman, Gabby Giffords, um, and even Simbad, who I heard recently, um, or not recently, but is also recovering from a stroke. So one thing that's different about Bruce Willis is that his seemed to be more in line with what we would consider a primary progressive aphasia, uh, which is it seemed as if his challenges were a gradual onset that may be getting uh worse in nature as it progresses or as he, you know, okay gets older versus the others, you're gonna have more of an acute onset of challenge based off of an injury that's presented.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Okay, so Bruce probably didn't have um a head injury like a stroke or anything. Um but so I'm more in line with Fetterman in our journey, um, where we with therapy and things like that, we are because of our onset, we are able to kind of get better, versus Bruce is in a progressive decline, like almost like a dementia or Alzheimer's would be, like it's a um a shrinkage that's happening there.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Is that correct? Right. And so with with the with the challenge of the progressive piece is from a therapy perspective, even that therapy may look a little different because, you know, for you, the goal is to try to find ways, or for you, veteran, the the goal is to try to find ways for you to be able to communicate and strengthen those neurons and plasticity connections. Where when something is in that progressive state, oftentimes therapy may shift to the caregivers or to the individuals around them and helping to support based off of the person's performance right there. Meaning that it'll be more challenging to keep training, like keep practice, keep practice, keep practice because of the type of disorder that's causing it, that deterioration and atrophy might still be present.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Right. So we need to find maybe different uh modalities for him.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Come on, modalities. Modalities and medicine, you know. I I high-level saw, meaning I didn't read it all the way through, but I did see that there's some research out showing how a certain type of pharmaceutical drug is supporting in that slowing of the cognitive decline. So it's like even that verbiage, slowing of the cognitive decline versus eliminating or cognitive decline getting better. Kind of like that cellulite cream. You know, when they say with the cellulite cream, they say it reduces the appearance. Right, because it's still gonna be there. But it's still there, it's still there, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:30

It's like good foundation.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

I don't know about good foundation. I want it to smooth out, but yeah. Right, you wanna you wanna you want it gone.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

I need this surgically is this cream gonna handle this, or do I need to pay copay? I need to know. Okay, copay. Come on, copay, come on, copay. So other than onset, what makes what makes it what are the hallmark differences other than acute sudden stroke? Are there any other hallmark differences in the way it's treated or presented that you haven't already spoken on?

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Yeah, so I think one of the biggest things, like just overall looking at when someone has um a communication disorder related to stroke or related to a progressive type of um disorder or progressive type of disease in nature, is understanding what that individual's strengths and weaknesses are. And so are they able to fluently communicate and um and get their words out? And so we would classify that as either non-fluent or fluent. Are they able to understand spoken language? Uh so we would classify that as auditory comprehension or their ability to understand receptive language. And so that goes back to that Gabby Gifford's piece. Um, one of the reasons why I wouldn't necessarily think Wernicke's is because a hallmark feature of Wernicke's aphasia is the difficulty in auditory comprehension. And with her, I didn't I didn't see that. The other hallmark um or classification uh tool would be uh an individual's ability to repeat, so repetition. Uh so with brokas, that might be a challenge is the the individual's ability to repeat whatever word. And so if you can't say the word on your own, but then I say it, your ability to repeat that word can also indicate a level of damage.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Oh, okay, okay, that makes sense. I get that. Hmm. We need to do icebreaker though.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

We done broke the ice. Okay, what you got for an icebreaker?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Um, I'm gonna ask you, uh, what is your uh movie that you could watch at any time of day? If it if you're not feeling well, it's just on in the background, you see it's on, you're like, oh word, I'm watching that. It's good. What's your movie?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

I would say I'm gonna go cliche, and I say cliche because I'm sure this is a favorite for many, but when you say anytime, I could watch it anytime. Okay, I have two. Anytime. Go. Um, I'm gonna go with Lean on Me and Love and Basketball.

unknown 17:54

Oh shit!

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah, man. Love and basketball, I could watch right now.

unknown 18:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

And the best man. I mean, well, this is a you know, I don't know if you've seen the best man series.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Have you seen Oh my god, it's so good. Right? Okay, it's so good. Oh my god, it's so good. It's so good. What are your movies?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Um, well, first of all, I might I might get a card revoked, but my first movie, and I'll give two. Um Back to the Future. Don't judge me, y'all. Don't come for me. Back to the Future is like and um I'm gonna go with Hitch. Hitch is one of my favorites. I love it. Oh, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 18:44

I'm gonna go watch Hitch.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

I haven't watched that one in a while. And I liked love and basketball, but I didn't take because I saw myself in Saleah Latham's um uh in her uh her character, I saw myself, but I didn't like the way she got played. Like I didn't like I didn't I didn't so I didn't like the movie because I was like, no, well first of all, that's your man. Lady I was like, listen, I don't like the way you're handling any of it. Her nemesis, I didn't like the way she handled any of it. So but my uh but my uh for the culture movie is Love Jones.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Oh Love Jones, yes, I love Love Jones.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

How about a breath mint and a visa? I loved it a lot. I don't need I don't need poetry to get women. No, you need a visa and a breath mint. That was that was a great movie. That was a great movie. But um, all right, so listen, what's her time looking like?

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Oh now listen, normally I'm the one that's saying time to go, I'm I'm giving you all the signals. We have we still have some more time. So I wanted to, since um I wanted to talk about another person that's had a stroke that would possibly be different than any of the other individuals that we spoke about, which is Sinbad.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

And from what I've seen, it appears that Sinbad might have had a right hemisphere stroke. And the reason why I say that is because I saw some um uh some pictures and it seemed as if his left side had the hemiparesis. And since our our brain is contralateral, um, the right innervates the left, left innervates the right. And so again, not being consulted on this case, but I think that he had a right hemisphere stroke.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

So he would be able to so he wouldn't have aphasia because aphasia is the speech part of your brain is on the left.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Right, right. And so with him, we wouldn't necessarily classify any language challenges that he may be having as aphasia, but maybe uh challenges with cognitive communication. So his ability to think through and process thought that supports communication, um, his ability to stay aroused and have attention and memory, uh, oftentimes we see some of those things classified on the right on the right hand side, uh, with with right hemisphere strokes, challenges with facial expression, um prosody, speech.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

So the hallmark differences between a right hemisphere right side versus the left side. What are the hallmark differences?

SPEAKER_02 22:02

So a lot of the hallmark differences with right versus left. So with left side, you're going to see that language piece. So difficulty understanding words, using words, whether it's verbal, written, difficulty, even possibly with some of those cognitive processes related to thinking and reasoning. Where with that right hemisphere, even though you might still have some of those communication elements, you might have more challenges with facial expression, under seeing someone's face and understanding what who that is, emotion. You might have some challenges with physiospatial skills. So understanding the perception of the perception and depth of things, the distance, shapes, localizing targets in space, understanding relationships between between uh pictures and and vision. And so oftentimes you see more of those things classified with you see more of those challenges in individuals with right hemisphere stroke.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Well, with emotional liability, not like emotional challenges. It's a word for it. It's like live, not liability, and it's not but it's one can be emotional libile.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

LIBOR right.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

It's um I feel like it was uh that was definitely a challenge for me. Um and uh, you know, shout out to Pfizer for this medication. Yeah. Stuff attracts. Right. Your brain, you know, when you have a brain attack, it it changes everything. It changed my personality. I wasn't nearly as funny. Um, you know, I'm a good time. I was a good time. Oh, you're still a good time now, honey. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I I am. Thank you. I wouldn't be on here if I wasn't, but still.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Yeah. And that could be, and that's some of the the differences that you'll see, um, or one of the differences that you can see between individuals that have right hemisphere stroke versus left hemisphere, is both of you can be have those moments of um being emotionally labile. But oftentimes the difference is that left hemisphere stroke, uh, because their problem solving and cognitive abilities um may be stronger, they're able to apply reasoning skills to some of that versus that right hemisphere stroke, you might see more challenges in cognition. And so the reasoning skills to help pull themselves out of that could be um also high uh more significantly impaired. Or the ability to recognize emotion, um, the ability to show emotion. And so, you know, someone could be upset, angry, and that right hemisphere stroke might not be able to differentiate between an angry sounding voice and a happy sounding voice, or you know, see you crying and understand, like, oh wow, I've said something to upset you. Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

It doesn't right, right. Um, so they're not being mean, they really just can't process exactly what's going on. So if you've had a uh left side and a right side, and you're the caregiver, that's gotta be insanely challenging. On how do I get through to my loved one to have them understand what I'm going through?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

That's um that's terrible. I mean, you think about the caregiver and um what they have to go through if, like I said, if you have left and right, and your loved one is emotionally unavailable, um, and they have their own brain damages, so they're the ones that get all the care. Right. But you are like, listen, I'm over here trying to be the facilitator and the caregiver, and I gotta understand everything they're going through, but who has to understand what I'm going through?

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Exactly. And I think that that's why it's so important to have the support groups, but also really, really important for caregivers, whether it's a right hemisphere stroke or a left hemisphere stroke, to make sure that they're communicating with the practitioner, their speech language pathologist, to give them insight into what's going on at home because, you know, they're only with that practitioner for 30 to 50 minutes. And the caregiver is with that individual in their most comfortable space, which is in the home. And so um, I just encourage all caregivers to to seek out support. And if you need more better support from your practitioner, tell them.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Tell them. They're gonna they're gonna have they're gonna have to find out. And listen. You're gonna learn today. You're gonna learn today. That's what you're gonna do. Well, listen, this has been a phenomenal, phenomenal learning experience as it always is, Dr. Silas. But I think we're gonna have to leave it right there. Oh yeah. Thanks so much. Thank you for listening, downloading, and rocking with us. We are the brain friends. Brain friends. Bye.