Aphasia Diagrams: A New Notational Scheme for Representing Neurolinguistic Deficits

Abstract

Models of language processing are becoming extremely complex. As a result, it has become very difficult to develop a thorough understanding of even a single patient's deficits, let alone to represent those deficits in a way which renders their significance apparent to others. In this paper, we describe and demonstrate the use of a notational system which has been developed specifically for representing the complexities of neurolinguistic deficits. The notational system is simple to learn and to use and may easily be extended and adapted to different models of language processing. It may also be used to represent the results from other nonlinguistic neuropsychological batteries which are composed of tightly interdependent subtests with many related factors included in each subtest. Despite its simplicity, the notational system has proven itself in the field as a useful tool for rendering complex deficits more easily interpretable.