Paragrammatism: symptoms, causes and treatment

A summary of the characteristics of this disorder of verbal expression with neurological causes.

Language is a tool we use daily to communicate... But what happens when it is altered? Are we aware of what this implies? If we have a brain injury, a stroke, a cranioencephalic trauma, an infectious disease of the brain... it is possible that we develop some type of aphasia.

Among the aphasias, we find Broca's aphasia, which is characterized mainly because spontaneous language is altered (it is not fluent). In addition, it also also involves another major symptom: paragrammatism.. In this article we will know exactly what it consists of, its symptoms, its causes and possible treatments for it.

Paragrammatism: what is it?

Paragrammatism, also called asyntaxia or telegraphic language, consists of an alteration of verbal expression (i.e., spoken language), which typically manifests in motor aphasia (also called Broca's aphasia). (i.e., spoken language), which typically manifests itself in motor aphasia (also called Broca's aphasia).

Its main symptom is the appearance, in the speaker's speech, of syntactically disorganized sentences, which are syntactically disorganized sentences, together with the use of incorrect grammatical forms when structuring sentences. when structuring sentences.

Thus, it involves the appearance, in speech, of grammatical errors, and the use of an incorrect temporal marking in verbs. People with paragrammatism also use pronouns inappropriately. All of these failures occur in the context of a wide range of grammatical constructions.

In severe cases of paragrammatism, the patient's speech becomes completely intelligible.. Thus, in these cases there is also slang, which is a language disorder through which the person replaces the appropriate words with unintelligible terms.

Broca's aphasia

As we have seen, paragrammatism appears in Broca's aphasia. Broca's aphasia implies, at the cerebral level, that the third frontal circonvolution is lesional (i.e. Brodmann's areas 44 and 45). The main symptoms of this type of aphasia, beyond paragrammatism, are:

• A non-fluent spontaneous language
• Altered naming
• Preserved comprehension
• Altered repetition

Examples

To better understand this disorder, some examples of sentences of people with paragrammatism are: "I trust you very much" or "On Thursday you fail, let's go in six friends for lunch".

Symptoms

The main symptoms of paragrammatism are the following.

1. Failures in the order of words and sequences.

The first symptom of paragrammatism is a sequence of errors that errors that appear when ordering words and sequences, at the syntactic and/or morphological level..

Thus, people with paragrammatism tend to replace the order of sentences with a set of syntagms, which at first glance may seem well structured, but in reality are not, since there is no coordination or logical connection between them.

2. Exaggeratedly long sentences

Another symptom of paragrammatism is an exaggerated length of sentences. In fact, this length is related to two other disorders: jargon (already mentioned) and verbiage.. In this case, verbosity involves the excessive use of words in speech, which can constitute a real alteration in the flow of language, at a quantitative level.

In addition, verbiage is accompanied by other symptoms, such as prolixity of speech, acceleration of speech and difficulties in being interrupted.

On the other hand, in the same utterance that the person emits, several changes in the communicative thread may appear, making the language incomprehensible.

3. Substitution of certain words

Another symptom is the substitution of certain types of words for others; this occurs with function words or inflectional affixes. Thus, these are replaced by other words belonging to the same semantic field..

Neologisms can also appear, with similarities to the functional word that is substituted. Neologisms are "invented words" as well as newly created expressions within a language.

4. Difficulties in matching sentences

Another symptom of this language disorder, which is also common, is a great difficulty to adapt the different sentences to the existing context..

Causes

The main cause of paragrammatism is Broca's aphasia, one of the existing types of aphasia. Aphasias are the loss of language function, and originate from an organic lesion of the brain..

There are multiple types of aphasia. In turn, the causes of aphasia may be several. Some of the most frequent are:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) 2.

One of the possible causes of aphasia, which in turn causes paragrammatism, is a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

A TBI consists of an injury, often caused by a blow to the headIf the areas responsible for language are affected, aphasia occurs.

2. Brain tumor

Brain tumors can also cause aphasia, if they press on the area (or areas) of the brain responsible for language..

Tumors can be primary (if they originate in the brain tissue itself), or produced by metastasis (which is when a malignant tumor has spread to another part of the body).

3. Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or stroke

These occur when the Blood supply to the brain is interrupted (or when it decreases), which means that the brain cannot oxygenate itself for a few seconds. What often happens is that certain groups of neurons die.

Strokes can be hemorrhagic or ischemic.. It is estimated that approximately 40% of people who have suffered a stroke or a stroke suffer from aphasia.

4. Infectious diseases

Infectious diseases can also cause aphasia, although they are usually temporary aphasia, since when the infection disappears, so does the aphasia. Examples of this type of diseases are: encephalitis, meningitis or brain abscesses..

5. Degenerative diseases

Finally, degenerative diseases can also lead to aphasia, which in turn can lead to paragrammatism. Examples of this type of diseases are: Alzheimer's, Pick... Aging is usually the cause of this type of disease.

Treatment

The treatment of paragrammatism involves the treatment of aphasia as a global picture. Mainly, a neurorehabilitative treatment is chosen.that is to say, cognitive rehabilitation, which involves a series of exercises, activities and tasks that allow working on language and communication.

On the other hand, speech therapy speech therapy is also used to work on the areas affected by aphasia. by aphasia, and in this case, the alterations derived from paragrammatism.

Thus, exercises are used that allow, for example, to work on sentence sequences at a morphological and syntactic level, requiring the ordering of sentences, filling in missing gaps, discriminating sounds, etc.

Logically, each treatment will be personalized to the type of patient and lesion.

Bibliographical references:

• Alexander M.P. (1997). Aphasia: clinical and anatomic aspects. In: Feinberg TE and Farah MJ Eds. Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology. Mc Graw Hill, New York; 133-149.
• Belloch, A., Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual de Psicopatología. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.
• Borregón Sanz, S. and González Calvo, A. (2000). Aphasia. Exploration, diagnosis and treatment. Madrid: CEPE. (2nd edition).
• Pérez-Pamies, M., Manero, R. Mª and Bertrán-Serra, I. (2001). Aphasias. In Peña Casanova, J. Manual de Logopedia. Barcelona: Masson. (pp. 369-407).