SUR QUELQUES TENDANCES ACTUELLES EN APHASIOLOGIE

It is unlikely that performance factors alone are affected by aphasia. If there is any disturbance which is found in the majority of clinical forms of aphasia and which is very poorly interpretable in terms of performance, it is in fact damage to the semantic system of the language. Research results show that semantic disintegration, while particularly evident in Wernicke's semantic aphasia and in nominal aphasia, is by no means absent in the other forms of aphasia. There again, is a group of studies by no means inconsiderable which seems to show, in contradiction to the theories defended by Luria, that the disturbance of semantic systems in aphasia goes largely beyond the strictly verbal sphere, extending as far as the comprehension of the sense of non verbal sounds, symbolic gestures and simple visual images.