Which description best characterizes Wernicke aphasia?

• A. Fluent speech with impaired comprehension
• B. Nonfluent speech with preserved comprehension
• C. Fluent speech with preserved comprehension
• D. Nonfluent speech with impaired comprehension

Answer: (A)

Wernicke aphasia is a receptive language deficit from damage to the left temporoparietal region (Wernicke’s area). The hallmark is fluent, effortless speech with normal outward speech production, but the content of what is said is often nonsensical or meaningless because comprehension of spoken language is severely impaired. Patients may produce many paraphasias and neologisms, and they typically have difficulty understanding questions or instructions, which leads to poor comprehension despite normal-sounding speech. Repetition is also impaired, and reading and writing can be affected.

Thus, the description that best fits this condition is fluent speech with impaired comprehension. The other descriptions point to different patterns: nonfluent speech with preserved comprehension aligns with Broca’s aphasia; fluent speech with preserved comprehension would not capture the receptive deficit; nonfluent speech with impaired comprehension can describe more global or mixed aphasias.