Aprosody: Types And Symptoms Of This Language Deficit
Speech has its rhythm and its times When we speak, we do not simply blurt out an idea, but we separate the words, give more emphasis to some than others and structure our speech. We pause and give it an intonation and melody that make communication a flow of information that is understandable in various aspects. This derives from a large number of aspects, including emotionality and the sense of rhythm.
Prosody can be trained and it usually acquires greater richness and skill as we learn. But some people, for different reasons, either fail to achieve this learning or even though they have it, they lose it as a result of some type of brain injury. These people have aprosody, a speech phenomenon that can lead to communication difficulties. Let’s see what it consists of.
Aprosody is considered a deficit or inability when it comes to understanding and/or producing changes in voice pitch, rhythm, or intonation It is an alteration of one of the main paraverbal aspects of language, that is, one of the elements that allow us to vary the acoustics of the message we provide and that can have various effects on the message itself.
Taking into account that prosody allows information to be given emotional meaning, nuanced or even implied the opposite of what is expressed, and also makes the message much more understandable for the recipient, we can consider that a person with prosody will show an inability to reflect their emotions in their voice, regulate the tone of voice or control the timing and rhythm of speech making his speech much more difficult to interpret.
Your message will come out much flatter, with you not knowing exactly what you want to emphasize unless you explicitly state it. Definitely, The speech of someone who suffers from aprosody tends to be monotonous and neutral In some cases, you may not separate words or phrases well, making understanding even more complicated.
You will also have greater difficulty or may even find it difficult to understand elements such as changes in other people’s voices and what it may imply regarding the message. There may be difficulties in capturing emotions. But we are not dealing with subjects who lack the ability to express their thoughts or who do not have emotions.
Nor are they people who have to have any intellectual deficit or any neurodevelopmental disorder (although it frequently appears in some of them). They simply are not able to print to their language intonation, rhythm and emotional meaning that other people do.
As a problem that affects communication, it can have different effects on the life of those who suffer from it. Although in itself it does not usually represent a serious limitation that prevents social participation or the performance of any action, the person may be seen as cold and strange Their way of expressing themselves can lead to misunderstandings and arguments, and may cause some type of social rejection or even some difficulties at work. It is likely that the person affected will avoid starting or maintaining conversations.
Types of aprosody
Not all subjects with aprosody have the same difficulties. In fact, at the time the concept was proposed, the existence of different typologies was also proposed. depending on the brain location affected Taking this aspect into account, we can find different typologies, but three main types stand out.
In this type of aprosody the problem occurs at the level of understanding. The subject has severe difficulties when understand and process changes in rhythm and intonation of others it may be difficult for you to recognize the emotions of the recipients.
2. Motor aprosody
In this type of aprosody the problem is fundamentally one of expression: as we have said previously, the subject has monotonous language and lacks emotionality, not being able to modulate the voice correctly in a way that offers information beyond the content of the message in question and/or not controlling the rhythm. It is also common for them to present a certain mutism, facial rigidity and lack of gesticulation.
3. Mixed aprosody
In this case, the two previous types of difficulties occur together.
What are your causes?
The causes of aprosody can be multiple, but can generally be found in the presence of neurological alterations or injuries
The different investigations carried out indicate that these lesions would generally be found in the temporal and parietal lobes of the right hemisphere of the brain, linked to emotional expression and the use of rhythm. Specifically, the damage would correspond especially to Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area of said hemisphere. It is a very common disorder in the clinical population, especially in those who have some type of aphasic problem.
These injuries can occur due to multiple conditions. It frequently appears after craniocerebral trauma strokes or neurodegenerative processes such as dementia (for example, it is common in dementia caused by Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease).
It is also common and very characteristic of subjects with autism spectrum disorder. Likewise, aprosody appears associated with the consumption of substances such as alcohol, such as in subjects with dependence on said substance or those subjects with fetal alcohol syndrome. Finally, it can appear in mental disorders such as schizophrenia, or in some cases in people who have experienced severe trauma.
Possible treatments
The approach to aprosody is usually multidisciplinary. It must be taken into account that in the majority of cases we are talking about the consequence of a brain injury, so It must first be taken into account what caused it
One of the main strategies is to apply speech therapy techniques and treatment through modeling and techniques based on imitation in order to reduce their communicative limitations. Biofeedback is also frequently used, especially in the motor type. Working on emotional expression through various means can also be very useful. Psychoeducation and information are also important so that the person and the environment can understand what is happening and know how to handle and understand it.
