A family friend has some sort of aphasia that is affecting his language first, but will end up taking his life. He's taking death head on and sharing a really remarkable story about how to die "green."
Kind of tangentially related, but an interesting adventure into things I've never really spent time to think about. https://vimeo.com/145882693
> some sort of aphasia that is affecting his language first, but will end up taking his life
Aphasia (ancient greek for "without speech") is just a condition of impairment in language production. By definition, it can't directly harm you, or do anything other than "affect your language".
It is caused by brain injuries; they can hurt you.
As you note, aphasia is a symptom. As such it can have multiple causes. Some varieties of aphasia are caused by a degenerative disease, not injury, for example Primary Progressive Aphasia [1].
Stroke is a very common cause of aphasia, of course, but as our populations age (and as the causes of death and disaility that strike earlier are eliminated), the many varieties of age related dementia are making themselves known.
The three types (agrammatic logopenic semantic) are so interesting. Presumably the emergence of behavior from histology is what's going on here -- I hope there is more research into this as biotech gets better, both so we can cure this and to understand the genetic encoding of behavior.
Also really sad. Anyone who's had a degenerative disease in their family knows how hard this can be.
Not just language - object recognition too - visual aphasia is a thing too.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks is a great book on the topic.
Anecdotally, I've had it (visual aphasia), in a severely dehydrated state (vomiting for a week in 40 degree heat is no joke), I couldn't identify objects (taps = cat) and things were hard to identify as coherent wholes, more a bunch of strange parts, and was hallucinating badly to boot. Couldn't even begin to put words together so can't comment on verbal. Horrible experience but even at the time some part of me that was clinging to sanity was going "hmm, interesting".
It's a familiar one for me. I've shot myself, put an axe through my hand, been stabbed, and have had all manner of painful and unpleasant experiences - and I guess part of the coping mechanism I've had since before I recall is to take a clinical detachment and observe myself as a subject.
Then again when I was nine my mother caught me sticking knitting needles in my eye, trying to replicate newton's experiments, so.
Not to get all pedantic, but aphasia means difficulty with communication. So "visual aphasia" doesn't make any sense. Still an interesting deficit
Aphasia -Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write.
(from the National Aphasia Association)
I've been working with people for 20 years (I make aphasia therapy software) and it's amazing how little the average person appreciates their language.
I like to say :
Aphasia is the deficit that has everyone not talking.
When we try to relearn language as an adult we find out just how complicated speech & language are.
But, boy, when it's gone you realize how valuable it is.
My friend's grandmother had a stroke some months back; she lost the ability to talk. She can easily demonstrate that she understands what you say, but she can't talk.
There is a passage in The Language Instinct about a man who had a stroke, and lost the ability to talk. He recovered. And he described the experience -- of finding himself in difficulty, knowing something was wrong, and calling out to his wife for help... when no words came out.
It's one of the most horrifying things I can think of. :/
I've got a chronic health condition (being intentionally vague) and have thought a lot about what symptoms/outcomes would make me seriously consider ending my life. This is definitely on the list. Sounds miserable.
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[ 0.26 ms ] story [ 56.6 ms ] threadKind of tangentially related, but an interesting adventure into things I've never really spent time to think about. https://vimeo.com/145882693
Aphasia (ancient greek for "without speech") is just a condition of impairment in language production. By definition, it can't directly harm you, or do anything other than "affect your language".
It is caused by brain injuries; they can hurt you.
Stroke is a very common cause of aphasia, of course, but as our populations age (and as the causes of death and disaility that strike earlier are eliminated), the many varieties of age related dementia are making themselves known.
1. http://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-resources/primary-progressive...
Also really sad. Anyone who's had a degenerative disease in their family knows how hard this can be.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Oliver Sacks is a great book on the topic.
Anecdotally, I've had it (visual aphasia), in a severely dehydrated state (vomiting for a week in 40 degree heat is no joke), I couldn't identify objects (taps = cat) and things were hard to identify as coherent wholes, more a bunch of strange parts, and was hallucinating badly to boot. Couldn't even begin to put words together so can't comment on verbal. Horrible experience but even at the time some part of me that was clinging to sanity was going "hmm, interesting".
Since you describe this as "heat", I'll note for the record that 40 centigrade is 104 Fahrenheit.
That must've been a strange feeling.
Then again when I was nine my mother caught me sticking knitting needles in my eye, trying to replicate newton's experiments, so.
Aphasia -Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. (from the National Aphasia Association)
... and yet it is behind a paywall. I'd be fine with it if I knew that, by paying, I would support her. But I'm guessing this is not the case.
I like to say : Aphasia is the deficit that has everyone not talking.
When we try to relearn language as an adult we find out just how complicated speech & language are.
But, boy, when it's gone you realize how valuable it is.
Brain Scientist Describes her stroke, with humor and insight.
This is one of the best rated TED talks. I hear she spent 6 months practicing. And it shows.
Link to curated version (skips the boring part :)
http://www.bungalowsoftware.com/stroke/how-a-stroke-feels.ht...
Sometimes they don't.
My friend's grandmother had a stroke some months back; she lost the ability to talk. She can easily demonstrate that she understands what you say, but she can't talk.
There is a passage in The Language Instinct about a man who had a stroke, and lost the ability to talk. He recovered. And he described the experience -- of finding himself in difficulty, knowing something was wrong, and calling out to his wife for help... when no words came out.
It's one of the most horrifying things I can think of. :/
So, you could communicate with hand gestures, pictures, etc.
One technique is a communication board, with lots of pictures. The person with aphasia would point to the picture of concept they want to communicate.
And there are augmentative communication devices, but they are ( in my experience) not terribly useful for an adult w/ aphasia.