Are body part names selectively disrupted by aphasia?

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether body part names present particular difficulty for aphasics. Fifty aphasic patients were given naming and comprehension tests concerning the following categories: body parts, objects and clothing. Body parts were parts of a drawing of a nude human figure, clothing of a drawing of a dressed human figure. Objects were presented as separate drawings. Body parts were significantly more difficult to name and to comprehend than objects and clothing. Though on all categories naming was worse than comprehension, the difference between the two scores was significantly smaller for body parts than for clothing. We sought patients with an exceedingly deviant performance on body parts vs. objects or clothing, or on the difference between naming and comprehension on any of the three categories. None was found.